The Galactic Ninjas: My Way
by Darien Fawkes
Summary: Adaptation of the Galactic Ninjas arc. Odious and Badonna summon the renowned and fearsome Galactic Ninjas to take on the Rangers, but as the Rangers have their own issues to deal with and Odious becomes increasingly suspicious of treachery within her own forces, are the Rangers going to be more focused on the Ninjas? Or are their bigger threats to worry about?
1. The Galactic Ninjas: My Way

**A/N: **Well, here we are folks, the beginning of the Galactic Ninjas arc! Now, I have to warn you, I'm going to be making a LOT of changes, mostly to things like the order in which they come and there may well be a few surprises along the way as I weave this into my over-arching story. Hope you all enjoy it!

**Legal: **I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, characters, places, events etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be considered purely the creation of the author.

**Rating: **T – may be some mild adult themes, including language, violence and mild adult content.

Deep in the African Plains, a hunter stalked his target intently. It had been a long and arduous journey, one that had started days earlier as he single-mindedly tracked his intended target. Hunting for him was not just about merely getting any old prize, it was always the greatest example he could find. That meant not just following, it also meant getting inside its head, figuring out its routines and patterns. Places that were important to it, those in its group that were important to it, namely its relatives, its mate. It required figuring out its routine, when it would be alone and when would be the best time to make his move.

Rocky De Santos made his way through some brush, finally closing in on his perfect shot as his target, the most amazing lion he had ever seen in his life, came to water. The males especially were often difficult due to their nature. Males didn't really do much of anything since the females did all the hunting. The males for the most part spent the majority of their day either sleeping or lounging in their pride, preserving energy in case something threatened those under their protection. They were often only active for a few hours a day, and spent even less time alone. Rocky had spent almost a week tracking this one to find to find out when would be the best time to get it alone. Seeing it heading to its favourite watering hole, what Rocky liked to think of as its "man cave", since he had one at home, in his case a basement which he filled with the prizes of all his hunts, his favourite comic books, and mini-fridge with a few beers for when his days at the gym had been especially frustrating, he prepared his shot. He was careful to be down-wind, and kept out of sight as he lay down prone. He looked through the sight, lining up his shot. The night-vision was helpful, and meant he got the perfect view of the magnificent beast as he lined up his shot. He slowed his heart and held his breath to steady his shot as he lined up when the lion rose its head. When the moment was right, he took the shot.

"Perfect!" He whispered to himself, checking the shot in his view-finder. "That might just be one of the best pictures I've ever taken!"

Just then, he saw some movement a little way off. He wasn't the only one out here. While he loved nature, and had dedicated himself to getting perfect pictures of creatures, some of which may sadly be on the verge of extinction within only a few more years, never mind his lifetime, he knew he wasn't the only one that had an interest in them…and some of them were not just satisfied with pictures. Rocky stowed his camera back in its bag and made his move.

Rocky had been one of the longer serving Rangers, but all things considered he'd also been one of the more fortunate ones. When his original tenure ended back when he injured his back, handing off his powers to Justin, he had pretty good reason to think that was all the Morphing Grid had plans for him. While it took almost a year to get back to full health after the hospital found a hairline fracture that needed surgery to correct, he had worked hard to get back into shape but as time went by and some of his friends, Adam especially, had been called back a few times, for Rocky it seemed like retirement really was his path…and that suited him down to the ground! He hadn't even heard about the Moon Mission, he'd actually been moving house at the time and missed a call because Tommy hadn't been given his new number yet. He had been called to take care of Vrak in the Ranger War, but since that was now almost five years ago, it looked like the Morphing Grid had decided he had given enough of himself. Like most others though, that didn't mean he didn't still work to help the planet in his own way.

He utilised the same skills that allowed him to get such great nature shots to make his way towards his new target. His own tenure had included extensive training under Ninjor that had given him incredible stealth skills. It didn't take long for him to get into a good position behind them and move up, getting into position to see. Just as he suspected, it was three men, carrying some of the latest hunting gear. They weren't amateurs either, those rifles were top-of-the-line. Some of the best money could buy, with all the accessories and ammunition to go with it. These guys weren't weekenders here to see if they could get a lucky shot off, they were obviously also stalking the lion. The one thing he did know though was that they were here illegally. He had crossed the border onto a preserve about three days and over twenty miles ago. They were poachers, men who didn't care for petty things like bag limits, hunting seasons or preservation orders. All they cared about was taking a selfie with a fresh kill, perhaps taking a trophy like a pelt or some other body part they might even smuggle illegally back into the country. Judging by their accents and their behaviour, they were also Americans. It was people like them that meant many creatures such as the stately beast that was only a few feet away were edging towards extinction despite great efforts to ensure they would still be around for future generations to enjoy. Rocky considered his next move carefully. He wanted to stop them, but he was well aware of the danger their rifles presented.

One of the guys, obviously the one that won the coin toss or drawn lots or however else these jokers decided who would get the kill was lining up his shot. Rocky broke cover, snatching the barrel into the air as the man pulled the trigger, causing the shot to go up into the air. The shot rang out in the silent, still night for miles. Rocky pressed the advantage, smacking the poacher in the face with his own rifle and pulling it away from him before pointing it safely at the ground as the man fell, cradling his broken nose.

"You know, those signs on that fence you crossed about twenty miles ago weren't put up because some guy felt like a stroll." Rocky said, cocking the lever to eject all the bullets onto the ground, before dismantling the rifle. The poacher's friends helped him up.

"You ruined my shot!" He screamed. "You busted my nose!"

"You know some people would have reversed the order of those priorities." Rocky said sarcastically, holding up the two halves of the rifle. "Now, you can have this back when we get to the hospital. If we take the jeep, I'm sure you have around here somewhere we should get there in about an hour."

"You're giving him that back now!" One of the others stated. "Do you have any idea how much that rifle costs?"

"Probably less than getting caught by the Rangers who I'm sure had to have heard that shot." Rocky responded. "They should be on their way by now, shots carry a long way at this time of night."

One of them slipped his finger into the trigger guard. Rocky noticed this, and while he wasn't sure if it was just a move to intimidate or a serious attempt to use the gun, he wasn't going to gamble on the outcome. The hospital was over an hour away in a jeep, the nearest law enforcement considerably further! By the time anyone made it out there, the poachers could be long gone, and it wasn't like it would be in their best interests to wait around! Rocky threw the butt at the one with his finger on the trigger, smacking him right in the face, before surging in, taking him down brutally, landing knee-first on his rib-cage to wind him.

The other started to fumble with his gun, but Rocky spun around, connecting with his knee with the barrel of the gun he was still carrying. Using his makeshift club, he swept the rifle from his hands, before connecting with his jaw, sending him to the ground. He was careful not to incapacitate them too badly, he knew that they were a long way from medical help and delay could cost them their lives. They were crooks, but he wasn't willing to kill over the fact. He casually picked up the other two rifles.

"You three should really get those wounds tended to, and I wasn't kidding about the Rangers. They don't have much patience for poachers out here." He told them. "Your friend there has a fractured patella so you might want to help him walk, but if you're quick, you should be able to be out of here before the Rangers arrive."

"What about our rifles?" One of them asked. Rocky just raised his eyebrows.

"Really?" He asked dismissively. They took the hint that was one battle they weren't going to win. Rocky wasn't joking about the Rangers. There were many stories of people 'disappearing' around here. Considering the fact that by the time local law enforcement got to the scene the hyenas and other carrion eaters would have dealt with most evidence it wasn't a surprise that for some, it wasn't worth the paperwork of handing over poachers. They hobbled off with what little dignity they had left, leaving Rocky holding what he was sure was six-figures worth of hunting equipment. He just shook his head in disbelief as he picked up the bullets, he had scattered on the ground to make sure some poor creature wouldn't eat them by accident, before disassembling the guns and packing them up in their cases. He bundled everything up to be found by the Rangers and stashed them safely in a tree before getting ready to leave. He didn't want to risk being mistaken for a poacher himself.

As he was securing the cases in the tree, he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He sighed.

"You know, Rangers are a lot quieter." He commented.

"Really?" A familiar voice asked. "Because in my experience some of us make a lot of noise."

Rocky turned around smiling as he saw TJ standing behind him, grinning brightly.

"I loved Lightning Cruiser but I've got to say that V12 engine didn't exactly lend itself to subtlety."

"TJ!" Rocky called out, hugging his friend tightly. "Man, how long has it been? What brings a city-boy like you all the way out here?"

"I'm afraid it's not a social call." TJ told him. "We've got problems…the kind of problems that require the Spandex."

"Really?" Rocky asked. "What about those current guys? The ones in…Amber Beach is it?"

"Summer Cove! Man, how long have you been out here?" He asked.

"Sorry, I have to admit to being off-grid in a while." Rocky said with a little smirk. TJ just pointed at him and smirked.

"Off-grid…I like it!" TJ replied. "Same old Rocky!"

"So, where's your transport?" Rocky asked.

"Just over this way." TJ told him. "I didn't want to risk getting too close to the herds."

"Smart." Rocky replied, before following him. They made good time as Rocky followed on. They got to a clearing where TJ stopped by a ship. He looked to it with his forehead scrunched up.

"This is yours?" Rocky asked. "I was half expecting Lightning Cruiser…maybe the Astro Megaship."

"I'm using new transport these days." TJ told him.

"I've been out of the game a while, but…that doesn't look like one of ours." Rocky stated. Just then, he heard a weapon powering up behind him. He turned around to see TJ morphed and aiming a blaster at him, but the suit looked different. It had black, boots and gloves, with spiked shoulder pads. Rocky pulled into a guard.

"I should have known something wasn't right." He stated sharply. "I love TJ, but when it comes to being quiet, he's kind of in the same league as a crippled bull elephant!"

He went for his morpher, but was grabbed before he could reach it. An arm came around under his chin, squeezing his neck in a blood-choke. Another arm behind his head completed the hold. Rocky threw back his elbow, hoping to release the hold. He knew that from here, he had only a couple of seconds to force his opponent to let go before he wouldn't have the strength to fight him off. His elbow met only a metal breast plate though, almost tearing it straight out. Rocky faded fast, and Sledge dumped him on the ground as some viviks came to restrain him.

"Go and put him in stasis. Call Draven and tell him we have another one." Sledge told the TV bot. "TJ" just laughed and de-morphed.

"Of course, Sledge." He answered. "Where to next?"

"I hear one of them is attending something called a Comicon." Poisandra said in a sweet little sing-song tone. "Apparently humans do this thing called cosplay which should mean we don't even need disguises!"

"Perfect!" Sledge said as the viviks carried Rocky's unconscious body onto his ship and blasting off.

In Summer Cove, a new week was beginning and the Rangers were talking, catching up on recent events. Brody and Levi had given the team the weekend off training so that they could focus on their own families. It was a little self-serving, since they needed a little time alone between themselves and Levi's adopted brother Tom to figure out everything in their own heads about what they had learned about Dane. It was difficult enough to learn that a lot of what they presumed about their own birth was untrue without the fact that Dane had now gone in search of Mariko and another child he had with her. They weren't sure what to tell the team, but given the fact that Dane, who had taken over the responsibilities of Sensei and training the Rangers, had now left town, they knew they had to tell them something. As sensitive as it was, they opted for the truth. Secrets had caused enough pain in their lives.

"So, you two are…what? Half-brothers?" Calvin asked.

"Technically yes, but…we're still brothers." Levi said to them. "The one thing that hasn't changed is that."

"Yeah, but…your dad…yikes!" Hayley said, regretting it. "So, what's happening?"

"Well, for the time being we're moving stuff back here." Brody answered. "There's no point in going all the way out to the farm to train when dad's not there, and Principal Hastings just shut down the painting room again. It was damaged in the attack."

"But Psycho Green never went anywhere near the Paint Room." Preston said, before the penny dropped. "Ah! I get it now! She figured having the Rangers on-site would be good for security!"

"That's about the size of it." Brody answered. "Mick helped us move everything back." Levi told them. "So, from now on we're back in the paint room!"

"Well, I guess at least there's no more long drive to go training." Calvin said with a shrug. "That should help with my gas budget."

"Guys…shh." Levi said as Clint, the security guard came over.

"Sarah." He greeted the Pink Ranger. She just groaned.

"Oh, come on, what did I do now?" She asked. Clint was a guy that took his job as school security seriously…sometimes a little TOO seriously! He went through more citation pads than any other school security guard, probably anywhere in the world! The Rangers were some of the best-behaved kids there was, and he had even written all of them up so many times all of them were in double figures!

"Yeah, there's some guy here to see you. I told him I needed to ask if it was alright because you are under our care." He said. He handed her a business card.

"Raymond Piralta…Happy Funtime toys?" She asked, reading the business card. "Why would a toy company want to talk to me?"

"I don't know, but Principal Hastings said you can use her office to talk to him." He responded. Sarah looked to the card and smiled.

"Well, this is interesting!" She stated. "I was sure I was getting written up again!"

"Oh, thanks for reminding me." Clint said, scribbling on his citation pad. "I saw you riding up the stairs and into the entrance hall. You know the rules; all vehicles have to stop outside!"

"Thanks Clint! I knew I could rely on you!" She responded sarcastically. He just shrugged.

"Just doing my job." He said as he walked away. Sarah put the card and the citation in her back pocket.

"Alright…well…I guess I'm going to see this guy! I'll see you guys later!" She told them.

"Well, I see Sandy, so…I have some more grovelling to do." Preston told them. "Hopefully this time she'll hear me out. Sandy! SANDY! WAIT UP!"

"Poor guy, he's really trying to make it up to her!" Calvin stated. Hayley just looked to him.

"He was meant to be mentoring her and he blew her off for a video game!" Hayley reminded him as Preston got to Sandy and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and smiled as she saw him. "But looking at that smile…I think he's getting off pretty easy!"

Just then, Brody's phone started ringing. He looked around the others, who all shrugged. They were the only ones who had his number. He wasn't the most sociable person so outside the Rangers he really didn't know too many people. He looked at the screen seeing the number was unlisted, before he picked up the call.

"Hello?" He asked tentatively.

"BRODY! HI!" A voice came through so enthusiastically and loudly Brody had to pull the phone away from his head before his ear-drums ruptured. Even the other Rangers jumped a little. "Sorry, I was a little enthusiastic…it's me, Emma!"

"Hey…Emma!" Brody answered tentatively. "What can I do for you?"

"You know how you said you were going to give me Martial Arts lessons?" She asked.

"Uh…yeah, something like that." Brody answered. It was an interesting way to put it, a more accurate description was she found out he liked Martial Arts from his Facebook page and immediately pleaded with him for lessons after spouting off all the old movies she loved in such rapid fashion he was sure she must have named over a hundred in under a minute.

"Well, I have some time at lunch time, do you want to get together and give me like an introductory lesson or something?" She asked him.

"Uh…sure, we could do that." Brody answered. "I'll meet you in the gym?"

"GREAT!" She said, rushing in from the side where no one even noticed her, launching into a tight hug. She released him. "Um…sorry, I was further away when this started um…I'll see you then!"

She skipped away cheerfully, leaving the others slightly dumbfounded.

"So…I guess I'm taking training in the yard." Levi answered.

"Looks like it." Brody replied. "I'll catch up with you guys later."

As they all parted, Brody stopped and thought about something for a moment.

"Wait a minute…how did she get my number?" He asked himself.

Up on the Warrior Dome, there was a massive buzz in the audience. The rumour mill had been working over time about the identity of the latest surprise guests on the show, and Cosmo had enough production staff 'leak' rumours on the forums and other media that many were already in a frothing frenzy about the prospect of the guests. The Galactic Ninjas had a reputation that spread far and wide, despite them never really taking part in anything like Galaxy Warriors. They were mercenaries for hire, usually used to performing tasks like sabotage, disrupting communications, assassinations…occasionally they even graced battlefields. However, they were in such demand from various warlords and psychopaths they never really graced television screens. Cosmo was only too happy to use that mystique to drive himself to some of his best viewing figures ever before they even confirmed they were on the show! He strode out onto the stage, performing a quick dance before looking to the audience.

"Who do you love?" He asked.

"COSMO!" They screamed.

"I can't year you, who do you love?" He demanded, cupping his ear with his hand.

"COSMO!" They called out in a deafening roar. Cosmo just took his place in the centre of the stage, accepting their adulation and appreciation. The number of shirts and signs in the audience was testament to how badly kept the "secret" was that the Galactic Ninjas would be on the show, and he was more than happy to accept their gratitude. He gestured to them all to quieten down, and waited for absolute silence.

"Tonight, is a very special night…we have some very special guests." He told them. "I'd like you to give your biggest, loudest, most extreme Galaxy Warriors welcome to the wily, the cunning…THE GALACTIC NINJAS!"

The audience all but exploded as the smoke machines went off and the four warriors ran out onto the stage. Cosmo was delighted by the response. He knew that Badonna had paid a pretty penny for them, but he didn't care a jot. Wolvermean, the leader of the Galactic Ninjas, whose name inspired awe and terror in equal measures in many systems stepped forward.

"Thank you, Cosmo! We're here to show those Earth Ninjas who's boss!" He declared with a series of showy had motions. "I'm Wolvermean, thief of memories and leader of these fearsome warriors!"

He stepped aside and gestured to his comrades, who all posed for the crowd.

"As our fans know, our power comes from these ancient, mystic Ninja medallions!" He announced as one of his own personal footsoldiers, a Fox-bot, a robotic ninja dressed head-to-foot in black robes, with a fox mask presented him with a case, showing the medallions to the audience. He took one, clipping it to his armour. "They make us unbeatable!"

The one on the left, a beaked warrior stepped forward and started flailing his arms around and spinning rapidly.

"I'm Speedwing, the fastest ninja alive!" He boasted. Given the blurred motions as he spoke, it was hard to dispute his claim. "They'll never see me coming!"

"I'm Rygore! The master of surprise attacks and strategy!" The second declared, stomping on the stage, shaking the entire ship with his power. "I'll bamboozle them all!"

"And I am Venoma! Ninja of dangerous love!" The final warrior declared. Venoma was renowned not just for her skills as a warrior, but for her allure and her tactic of luring her targets into being so entranced with her that they lost all ability to fight her. Given the fact there were a few signs in the crowd proposing marriage and…other things that Cosmo was certain he'd have to blur out in post-production, she seemed to have this gift even without her medallion. "I'll break hearts as easily as I break skulls! My poisonous charms will be their doom!"

"We are…" Wolvermean added as they all spun and twirled into the middle of the stage, before striking truly ridiculous poses for the cameras. "…THE GALACTIC NINJAS!"

"How about it folks? People said it couldn't be done, but here they are! The Galactic Ninjas!" He presented them. "Now, which one of you will go first?"

"We'll decide that right now in our time-honoured fashion!" Wolvermean said, summoning all of them into a semi-circle. They all put in one hand in a fist, before pumping three times…Cosmo couldn't believe his eyes when they all held their hands in a fist.

"ROCK!" They all chorused.

"Um…not to worry folks, I'm sure this'll just take a little while." Cosmo said as they did the same thing again.

"ROCK!" They all chorused. Cosmo just face-palmed and leant against the wall, waiting on them to finally manage to come to a decision.


	2. Speed And Surprise

Sarah knocked on the door to Principal Hastings' door, waiting for the invitation to enter before she did. She found her principal with a man, presumably the man that had asked to see her. It all did seem rather odd, and she had quite a few questions about the whole thing. Principal Hastings looked up as she saw her.

"Good morning, Sarah, how are you?" Principal Hastings asked her.

"Yeah, I'm good thanks Principal Hastings." She greeted her. "I'm a little confused though."

"Well, this is Raymond Pirallta, he is the CEO of Funtime Toys." She introduced the man. He was a friendly enough looking guy, one that did somewhat defy some of Sarah's expectations of a CEO. She had heard the term of course, especially since her dad was always involved in finance, but if she was honest she didn't really know what a CEO did other than the fact that the way most people talked about the position, most tended to use the term to infer someone was the boss of a whole company. Whenever she thought of the term, she thought of someone sitting in a meeting room full of old men, people who had worked for a company long enough to be in the position to be making decisions on how it was run. While not exactly old, she knew that Preston's dad Marcus was a CEO, and he did have a certain amount of grey hair, a fair few wrinkles. This guy though looked like he had barely been out of college more than a few years.

He had kind of shoulder-length dark hair, and was wearing a suit, but instead of some non-descript dark blue or black, his appeared to be a bright red, with a black shirt and red tie. Instead of some huge, ostentatious gold monstrosity on his wrist, his watch was the latest tech, something that Sarah recognised from her tech magazines that was, as far as anyone knew, still only in the theoretical or early prototype stage and certainly not available in any store, probably with a price tag in the six-figure range. He had a chunky, gold and heavily jewelled ring on his left pinkie and some short stubble that was just this side of being considered messy. He smiled as he saw her, offering her a handshake.

"Good morning, Sarah! It's a pleasure to meet you!" He greeted her in a voice with a distinctly east coast accent. She couldn't quite place exactly where though. He offered her a chair. "Please, take a seat! Would you like a coffee? Espresso?"

"Um...I'm good thanks." Sarah answered, noticing a little look he got from Principal Hastings, who seemed a bit put out that he was even here, never mind the fact he was offering HER refreshments. It was just one of the things Sarah was a little unsure of, why he had opted to meet her at the school instead of her home. If he knew who she was, then presumably it wouldn't have been too hard for him to figure out some way to send a letter or make a phone call to set up a time to meet her at home with her family. "Mr Pirallta, can I ask...why are you here?"

"Straight to the point, I like that!" He responded, looking to Principal Hastings. "Can you give us the room for a little while?"

Principal Hastings picked up her purse and left without a word. Raymond rested on the edge of the desk as he looked to Sarah.

"Sarah, do you know what it is to have a dream?" He asked her.

"Uh..."

"Let me tell you, growing up, I never had much in the way of toys. I absolutely loved them but I never had many. My parents, they worked really hard to make sure I had everything I needed, bless them, a good education three square meals a day, but my toys? I got hand-me-downs from the neighbours and some stuff from Good Will. Wooden train sets, Matchbox cars, Legos, that kind of thing."

Sarah just stared blankly at him.

"I went through college to make my parents happy, to get the education I needed to make it as a success in business but the one thing I always felt like I was missing out on was just some great toys! Toys are a magical thing; they take kids all over the universe! They can fight dragons, explore space, meet all sorts of wonderful people while never leaving the Living Room out of the watchful eyes of their parents! Isn't that just amazing to you? It was to me! That's why when I got some capitol under my belt; I went to my first love, TOYS!"

"It...sounds like it worked!" Sarah said gesturing to him. "Funtime Toys is one of the biggest names on the market."

"It sure is, and do you know why?" He asked. He threw his hands out from his head as though demonstrating an explosion. "IMAGINATION! I hire the most creative minds, people who love toys, who are basically kids themselves! People who understand what matters most in toys, FUN!"

"Yeah...um...not to be rude but...what does that have to do with me?" Sarah asked him. Ray held up a hand.

"Give me a moment." He told her, pulling out a tablet. He cued something up, before he started playing it. It was one of Sarah's old videos! When she was building her hoverboard, she made regular videos documenting all the developments, all her early rides, showing her demonstrating her proud creation. She'd almost forgotten about the YouTube videos that were still up on the site. She hadn't made one in...she had actually forgotten how long. Between Amber Beach and Summer Cove she'd been more than a little busy to worry about her uploading schedule.

"My old videos." Sarah stated, before looking to the hoverboard she had propped up in the corner. "You're interested in my hoverboard?"

"Ever since I was a kid, Back to the Future II was one of my favourite movies of all time!" Ray said with a childish glee. "Everyone was going gaga over getting a Millennium Falcon or an Enterprise but me? I always wanted to zip around the streets on a hoverboard! I think every kid in the country will want one of these! I want to make this the biggest thing since the bicycle! I want one of these in every home in the planet and I am here to tell you I want to help you make that happen!"

"You want to market my hoverboard?" She asked him. "Look, I'm flattered but I made this to get around on. I want to go to university and..."

"But don't you think that would be so much easier if you didn't have tuition to worry about?" He asked her. "I'm prepared to give you an advance that will more than cover tuition at any university on the planet!"

"You really think it could be that big?" Sarah asked him. "What kind of numbers are we talking?"

He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled a number on it, before handing it to Sarah. The Pink Ranger took one look at it, and the next thing she knew she was laying flat on her back staring up at the lights! She needed to check the number again.

"That...that's..."

"That's what I'm willing to give you for the exclusive rights to sell hoverboards!" He told her. "So, what do you say?"

"Um...I'm...uh..." She stammered, peeling herself off the floor with his help. "I'm...not much for business, my dad talks about that stuff and my eyes kind of glaze over. Do you have a contract or something I can take to dad to let him have a look at it?"

"Sarah, the thing is, I've already got a lot of projects on the go, I'm afraid I'm going to need to get an answer from you pretty quickly. I want these things to be under every Christmas tree this year."

"But Christmas is MONTHS away!" She complained.

"Yeah, and with marketing and safety inspections and production set up...if we want these things going we need to get things moving. We have a need, a need for speed!" Ray told her. "Tell you what, you have my card, I'll be in town for the rest of the week, if you want to talk more give me a call. Just tell me the time and the place."

"Uh...OK." Sarah replied as he guided her to the door.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some calls to make. I really want to hear from you Sarah; I see big things for this!"

As he closed the door behind her, Sarah just stared at the piece of paper in her hand. The money would be a great help for sure. She already had the grades to get in pretty much anywhere she wanted from Strathclyde to MIT, the only thing limiting her choices was waiting on scholarship offers that may or may not materialise. Millions of kids applied for those every year and there were only so many to go around. With that cheque, she could go anywhere she wanted. She still wasn't sure about Ray, but was it an offer she could afford not to consider?

Up on the Warrior Dome, the Galactic Ninjas were still standing around, playing rock, paper scissors in order to figure out who was going to be the first to go after the Rangers. Cosmo was still in the corner, shaking his head in disbelief as he watched this continue. Even the audience was starting to lose interest in this seemingly never-ending game which had yet to eliminate a single competitor after almost a full hour!

They parted, shaking out their hands as they took a rest after playing for so long. Cosmo strode across to where one of them was rubbing his wrist.

"How long is this going to go on?" He asked.

"As long as it takes!" Speedwing told him. "This is how we always assign our missions! It's a tradition that has endured as long as the Galactic Ninjas!"

"But...you're not doing ANYTHING!" Cosmo said in exasperation. Speedwing glared at him.

"Are you going to question the force that took the Leandra system in five days?" He demanded petulantly. Cosmo just backed up.

"I'm sorry; of course your reputation precedes you." He answered. "Just out of curiosity, how long did you do...this before you sacked the Leandra system?"

"Four days." He replied. Cosmo bit his hand in an attempt to prevent himself from screaming. They had taken the system in five days, but they had spent four of those days just deciding which of them to send? He thought about it for a moment before pulling him in.

"If I could perhaps offer a suggestion." Cosmo told him. "This time, pick paper!"

"What?" Speedwing asked him.

"Just...try it." Cosmo told him. Speedwing returned to the semi-circle as they finally returned after their rest period. They pumped their hands three times before making their call.

"YES! PAPER! I WON!" Speedwing screamed enthusiastically. Cosmo strode onto the stage.

"Well, there you have it folks, it looks like the winner, and the first Galactic Ninja to face the Rangers will be Speedwing! Tell us Speedwing, how are you going to bring down the Rangers?"

"My medallion is fully charged and my skills and speed are second to none!" He said to his audience as he posed for them. "The Rangers will never even see me coming!"

With that, he disappeared, teleporting down to Earth. Cosmo just groaned.

"Well, it'll be faster than your silly choosing ceremony." He commented, before turning to the others. "Come; let us retire to the executive lounge for a better viewing experience. We can watch Speedwing destroy the Rangers there.

"I still can't believe I lost!" Rygore whined. "How did Speedwing know how to beat all of us?"

"Maybe because you've played the same game 167 times and you all picked rock EVERY TIME!" Cosmo muttered under his breath as they left the stage, leaving the audience to watch the show on the massive screens.

Down on Earth, the Rangers were in Levi's music class, listening to his latest lesson. Preston had been called up to demonstrate the latest lesson, something that made him very nervous since he wasn't very musically inclined. He appreciated music just fine, he used music in his magic shows all the time and sometimes the music was just part of the spectacle and on some instances even part of the obfuscation of how his trick worked, adding as another level of distraction but as for actually playing music...well...he knew which end of a recorder to blow into if that counted. However, Levi was a little more ambitious for him and was getting him to demonstrate on an electric guitar.

Preston looked over to where Sandy was sitting, the chair next to her empty. He had apologised for reneging on his promise to mentor her through her first few weeks at school and she seemed to have accepted. There were still times he wasn't sure she was fully over it, he had gotten a cold shoulder from her a few times when he tried to approach, but whenever they did start talking he often got that warm smile he was starting to like seeing from her.

Getting to know her, he regretted not taking his mentoring a little more seriously to begin with. Sandy was pretty cool all things considered. She liked a lot of the same things he did, and she seemed to really be settling in at the school and making herself comfortable. She had even kicked her shoes off and slipped them under her chair during her time in class. He was concentrating on his playing, but almost as much, he was concentrating on watching her bobbing her head along to the beat as he played.

"And...that's it! Good job Preston!" Levi said as he took the guitar back, letting Preston take his seat next to her again. "Now, that was from Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name', and it's a great example of what I was talking about! A riff is just a short piece of music, just a couple of bars, repeated again and again to create a melody. It's deceptively simple but a lot of great music uses it to great effect! So for your homework I want you all to find three pieces of music from your play lists that feature a use of riffs, and we'll all listen to them in class next time and you'll see how sometimes even the classics really aren't as complicated as they seem."

Sandy slipped her trainers back on as the class started to gather their belongings. Preston looked to her and smiled.

"I'm sorry about that...I guess when it comes to music I'm a great magician." He told her. Sandy just laughed.

"It wasn't bad. You had the right notes...just...not always in the right order or at the right speed." She answered him.

"Still, at least now it's recess." Preston stated. "Some much needed time away from the teachers..."

"Hey, the feeling's more than mutual!" Levi chuckled. Just then, his Ninja-Comm bleeped. He looked around and noticed everyone else's had too. Being in class, they couldn't exactly answer them, but at least they all got the message that they were needed.

"Aw shoot! Um...sorry Sandy, something came up. I really need to go...uh...check on something Mr Kanik is making for one of my tricks." He told her. "We're still on for lunch right?"

"Are you kidding? If I want any chance of passing Chemistry I need all the help I can get!" She told him.

"Right, well...I'll see you then." Preston answered as he and the others ran out. Victor came over behind her.

"So, I couldn't help overhearing you're at a loose end this recess." He said. Sandy didn't pay him any attention though, Emma approached her, grabbing her.

"Come on Sandy!" She told her. As they left, Victor just sighed and settled back in his chair.

"What does Presto have that I don't?" He asked.

The Rangers followed the co-ordinates given to them by Mick, arriving outside a baseball stadium a few blocks from the school. They were used to arriving to find scenes of panic and destruction, but this time, they were a little surprised to find...nothing! There weren't any screaming people fleeing, there were no fires, no smoke alarms, nothing! Brody got onto his Ninja-Comm.

"Hey, Mick, we got to those co-ordinates. Are you sure this is the place?" Brody asked. "There's no one here."

"The warning system definitely said that alien bio signs had shown up in that area." Mick stated.

"Well, is there maybe a glitch in the system? I mean we did only just get the upgrade from Dr Morgan." Levi reminded him. "This place is looking as crowded as school in July!"

"I guess it's possible I didn't calibrate the sensors properly, coding isn't really my forte." He answered. "Let me try something, I'm just going to expand the parameters."

The Rangers all waited while he tinkered with the system to try and find the location of the bio signs that triggered the alarm.

"Guys, I think I've got something...in sector four!"

"Sector four?" Preston asked. "Isn't that a mile away?"

"Make that sector six...no wait...sector ten..."

"Mick are you sure about this?" Hayley asked him.

"I'm telling you it's coming your way!"

"Yeah, but that can't be right." Hayley responded. "What could move that fast?"

Just then, the Rangers were all blasted to the ground as something blurred between them, smashing into them like a cannonball. Brody was the first to get up.

"OK, what was that?" He asked, before a blur came past, knocking him down again. In turn, all of the Rangers were attacked before the blur finally came to a stop a little way from them. The team started to get up as Speedwing stood before them.

"OK, I'm going to go out on a limb and say our scanning system is just fine." Calvin responded.

"I am Speedwing! First of the Galactic Ninjas! The most powerful ninjas in the universe!" He declared proudly as he flailed his arms around and spun in place frantically. "I'm the fastest ninja alive and master of lightning fast attacks!"

"Galactic Ninjas?" Hayley asked. "So Odious has hired her own ninjas to come after us?"

"It takes a ninja to destroy a ninja!" He told them, waving his arms around in a blinding display. "And I am the first and last you will see! Prepare to be destroyed by a GALACTIC NINJA!"

He ended up posing, standing on one leg, with the other bent and the foot resting on the opposite kneecap. His arms were raised above his head. An explosion went off behind him and he stood, staring them down. All of the Rangers blinked as they saw this, before Calvin leant in towards Brody.

"Yeah, please tell me that's not what we look like." Calvin begged him. Speedwing pulled out his very own Power Star, showing it to them.

"He has a Power Star too?" Preston asked. "I'm calling serious gimmick infringement here!"

"This boosts my already incredible speed!" He told them, spinning the Power Star in his sword. "Prepare to meet by blade!"

With that, he rushed among the Rangers, ducking and dodging past every one of their attacks as he cut them all down. As he hit the ground, Sarah just groaned.

"Normally I'm a fan of speed." She muttered. "Where's Clint with his tickets when you need him?"

Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo was in the Executive Lounge with the other Galactic Ninjas, enjoying the show. He was delighted to watch as Speedwing casually dissected the team, able to take pot shots so quickly that none of them could so much as even prepare a guard much less strike a blow back! He took a cocktail and slurped it gleefully as he perused numerous humidors for a cigar.

"Your boy is giving us an amazing show!" Cosmo complimented them.

"It's like we told you, you want the best, hire the best!" Wolvermean declared as Rygore and Venoma rushed to his side and they all posed, before they wandered off to do their own thing. Wolvermean was offered some snacks from a platter. He picked up some canapés and slapped them on a plate.

"At this rate I won't even need all of you! I don't think the Rangers will make it past Speedwing!" Cosmo told him.

"Why waste our strength and our time when only one of us will do? Even if he is the least of us?" Wolvermean stated. "After all, we are..."

The other two rushed to his side again and posed.

"THE GALACTIC NINJAS!" Cosmo just blinked.

"Yes...well...of course." He replied. "Um...what do you mean the 'least' of you?"

"We only allow the most powerful to join our ranks. Speedwing can defeat entire armies with his speed before a single shot is fired!" Rygore stated, looking to the others. "Of course, he is...lacking in other areas."

"Truth be told..." Wolvermean said, looking around, before drawing in close and whispering. "He can be a little bit dim."

The other two nodded in agreement.

"But that doesn't mean he isn't one of us!" Venoma stated. "Once a Galactic Ninja!"

"ALWAYS A GALACTIC NINJA!" They declared together, striking a pose, at which an explosion went off behind them, destroying several kudabots and wrecking a considerable portion of the buffet. Cosmo picked up a cigar and casually clipped the end off it with a sigh.

"Do tell!" He whispered as several kudabots came in to clear up the mess.

Back on Earth, the Rangers were on the ground, their weapons strewn all around them, their uniforms smoking as Speedwing skidded to a stop. He thumbed his beak at them, levelling his sword over his shoulder casually as he started pacing.

"I can't believe you have the gall to even call yourselves ninjas! You're the most pathetic group of wannabes I've ever seen in my life!" He gloated as he looked over his fallen opponents.

"Did someone explain to him that we're the good guys?" Calvin spluttered, clutching at his ribs. "We're meant to be the ones winning."

"I can't believe a few minutes ago we were laughing." Preston added. Speedwing switched his sword to a back-hand grip.

"Well, this has been fun, but I get impatient really easily!" Speedwing stated, spinning his Power Star and powering up his blade. "FINAL ATTACK!"

He rushed towards them, but before he got there, someone streaked in from the side, sweeping his legs out from under him. Thanks to his momentum because of the speed, he hit the ground, rolling over and over again. His Power Star dislodged and flew off, landing by Sarah. Speedwing got up, but the new arrival was on top of him quickly, surprising him with a couple of shots, knocking him away again. Speedwing looked up at the stranger and looked confused.

"WHAT?" He demanded. "Who the hell are you?"

"That's kind of what we'd like to know." Calvin stated. "Brody, since when was there a GREEN Ranger?"


	3. Another Green Mystery

Speedwing rushed at the Green Ranger, who ducked under his blow, striking across his chest as he went. The other Rangers were getting up off the ground, and just stood staring at the battle going on before them.

"Um…OK, I have to ask again, since when is there a Green Ranger?" Calvin asked.

"Damned if I know!" Brody responded. "Mick, you know anything about this?"

"I'm seeing the same battle guys. I…I know as much or as little as you do right now!" It was a damn good question. Right now, the team were on even score with their encounter with new Rangers. They had so far encountered two new Rangers. The Gold Ranger, Levi, who was now one of their own. They had also encountered Psycho Green and were still reeling from the impact he brought with him. They had barely got out of that encounter with their lives, and Hayley especially was still feeling the effects now that it had been revealed her step-father Trevor had been his host. Given the harm they had seen Psycho Green bring, they were eager to find out which way this Ranger would go.

Levi had become one of them, but the fact was they kind of always expected him to show up at some point. Not necessarily him, but there had always been six Power Stars. There had been six Power Stars in the Nexus Prism when Brody, Sarah and Preston had retrieved their own Power Stars all that time ago. Brody had been around the Nexus Prism the longest, and he had only ever recalled their being six Ninja Power Stars, so where this Ranger got their powers was something of a mystery in and of itself.

Looking at the Green Ranger, they presumed that the powers had to be connected to theirs. The costume appeared to be similar to Hayley and Sarah's costume, though with the obvious difference the predominant colour was green. Given the fact that like Sarah's costume the legs and shoes were white, while the top half was green with black sleeves and the costume had a green skirt, they presumed that the Green Ranger was female. Her physique seemed to confirm that much. In height and build, it looked like she was somewhere between Hayley and Sarah.

"She seems to be doing well…" Hayley started to say, before Speedwing took flight, soaring towards her. Her swing went wild and he knocked her flat on her back. "…OH, spoke too soon!"

The Green Ranger got back up just as Speedwing came to her. Without his Power Star, his speed had taken a big nose-dive. The Rangers could actually see him moving, but he was still among the fastest opponents they had ever encountered. The Green Ranger blocked precisely one of his attacks, and it looked like that was more by luck than design. In fact, her swings started to very quickly look quite desperate and wild.

"Alright guys, we owe her, but now she's in trouble!" Brody said, making the decision. "We take care of Speedwing, then we find out who this is."

"I've got an idea." Preston said, looking to Sarah. "Draw Speedwing over here, we'll do the rest!"

Brody, Calvin, Levi and Hayley all rushed towards Speedwing who had taken down the Green Ranger and was about to strike her down. Hayley hit him, reminding him that the others were there, before the others set about him, driving him away from her. Brody caught sight of Preston waving to him, indicating he and Sarah were ready. He rushed forward just as Speedwing knocked the other three away from him.

"Hey, Speedwing! Think you're fast, come and get me!" Brody yelled, running back towards Preston and Sarah. Speedwing followed him as he darted between them. As he got there though, Sarah and Preston pulled a vine taught, tripping him up. Preston gestured to the others.

"Alright, he's down, everyone surround him!" He yelled. "His speed won't mean much if he can't go anywhere!"

Levi, Hayley, Calvin and Brody all closed ranks, but Sarah noticed that their latest team member hadn't joined them. She looked over.

"Hey! Come on!" She called out. The Green Ranger didn't respond though. Sarah just shook her head, figuring there was no time to reiterate the command and closed the gap. The Rangers all encircled Speedwing, who got up and realised he was surrounded. As fast as he was, he knew that he worked best when he had room to move. The speed of his blade was one thing, but if his body remained in the same place, then it just made him easier to strike. He spun around on the spot.

"Six or seven, it doesn't matter! I'll take you all down!" He said, striking a pose. "Later!"

With that, there was a flash of light and he teleported out, leaving them standing around.

"Alright, I know he's coming back at some point, but I can't be the only one to be happy to see him fly the coop." Calvin said, lowering his sword. Hayley just face-palmed.

"Really Calvin?" She asked. "Fly the coop?"

"Wow, I didn't even mean that either." He said rather unconvincingly. Brody levelled his sword over his shoulders as he turned his attention towards the Green Ranger and approached. The rest of the team all followed him.

"OK, so that just leaves you." He responded. "Look, we appreciate the help, but…who are you?"

"Where did you come from?" Hayley chipped in.

"And…where did you get your powers?" Sarah asked. The Green Ranger looked between all of them, backing up as they came towards her. She started to back up away from them. Preston held out a hand towards her.

"Hey, it's alright, we're all Rangers here!" He said cautiously. "Hey, we're the good guys here, we were just…"

Before they knew what happened, she had a smoke bomb in her hand and smashed it into the ground. By the time the smoke cleared, she was gone.

"Well, her sword technique might need a little work, but she certainly has that trick down cold!" Levi stated.

"Yeah, she does." Brody sighed. "Come on guys, we need to get back to school."

As they were all about to leave, Sarah noticed something lying on the ground a little way off. She went over, crouching down, finding it to be Speedwing's Power Star.

"So, the bad guys have Power Stars too now?" She asked. "Maybe I should give this a closer look."

Up on the Warrior Dome ship, Speedwing had returned following his first encounter with the Rangers. Although Speedwing had made the correct tactical decision to quit the battle and return to the ship to regroup and re-assess the situation following the unexpected change of circumstances, he and the Galactic Ninjas were not used to failure. Speedwing was so fast, even without his Speed Star augmenting his already impressive speed he was often fast enough to destroy whole squadrons before they could so much as get off a shot or even fully draw a weapon. Being a ninja though, research and preparation was still a big part of their MO and he had been counting on there being six Rangers. The seventh had managed to blind-side him and disrupt what was on course to be a certain victory.

He had gone to the Executive Lounge to make his peace with his team. Cosmo, Venoma and Rygore were still lounging around, making full use of the complimentary refreshments and relaxing as they enjoyed the show. Cosmo was happy enough, the audience had been thrilled by not only the destruction and mayhem of the first battle, but by the shocking arrival of an unadvertised new fighter. He was already on the phone to find out how quickly production could get suitable images of the Green Ranger to merchandising companies to begin production. Speedwing in the meantime was standing before Wolvermean, seeking forgiveness in the eyes of his peers.

"Sorry master Wolvermean, I don't know how I lost my Speed Star!" Speedwing pleaded as he stood before his master. "I've tarnished the reputation of the Galactic Ninjas."

"Oh, you most certainly have." Venoma said, downing a glass of champagned and holding her glass out for another. A kudabot had to try hard to fill it given how much her hand was swaying and ended up losing some on the floor before finally filling the glass. "Running out on some -hic- wannabe ninjas? You're such a -hic- disgrace."

"Yeah." Rygore mumbled through a huge mouthful of nachos and cheese dip, wiping his hand on his armour, which was slowly becoming covered in crumbs and errant dip. More sprayed out of his mouth as he spoke. "You wouldn't see us embarrassing the…"

They all rushed together and posed.

"GALACTIC NINJAS!"

They all rushed back to their original positions and resumed what they were doing.

"…like that." Rygore concluded. Speedwing hung his head in shame. Wolvermean just glowered at him.

"You've disgraced your position and your team. A team of losers like that? It wouldn't take me more than a few minutes to take them down, regardless of how many there are!" Wolvermean told him. "Next time you face those Rangers, I don't want any excuses. You defeat them and you bring back that Power Star or…you'll no longer be a Galactic Ninja."

"WHAT?" He screamed. "No, please…"

"No more glory." Rygore said as he picked up a tub of cheese dip and started drinking it. "What do I have to do to get more chips here?"

"No more -hic- dignity." Venoma hiccoughed as she snatched the bottle from one of the kudabots and gave up on the glass altogether. Wolvermean stood forehead to forehead with him.

"And most of all…no more posing!" He told him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He wailed in despair. "Please, I promise, I'll not let you down again!"

"See that you don't!" Wolvermean told him. "The Galactic Ninjas…"

The other two ran to his side and posed with him, before returning to their seats.

"…do not forgive failure!"

"Well, I couldn't help overhearing and I think I may be of some help." Badonna announced as she entered the room. "I found some footage of the aftermath of the battle that I think you may find interesting."

She pulled up the buzz-cam footage, showing Sarah bending down and picking up the Speed Star. Speedwing noticeably seethed and his feathers started to stand up on end as he saw this.

"It looks like the Pink Ranger has it now." She told him. "Just think, if she can figure out how to use your Power Star against you…"

"Ha! As if! No mere human can withstand the power of the Speed Star!" He scoffed proudly. "Do you think it's easy moving that fast? If she utilises that Speed Star, I won't need to destroy her! Of course, now I know which one has it…it'll make getting it back so much easier! Then I'll be unbeatable!"

He stomped off towards the door.

"I'm going to train! I might have taken them lightly the first time but when I return, I'll be in the best shape possible!" He assured them all. "This world will learn to dread the name of Speedwing!"

Back at the school, the Rangers had returned to the school and were in chemistry class. They'd had a few substitutes as of late, with the main science teacher…who had been covering all the science classes, having opted to take retirement a few months earlier just before the final battle with Galvanax citing the desire to spend his remaining years alive. It was something of a running issue with the school that they had positions that were difficult to fill. They still didn't have a full-time janitor, more than one teacher was performing multiple-duties and hiring people who were willing to come to the city that was affectionately known as "Gotham without the survival rate" by some tourist and property sites was pretty difficult to say the least. The latest substitute was Dr Edwin, a local pharmacist who moonlighted as a substitute teacher to supplement his income. No one really knew why since two of the few booming industries in Summer Cove were hospitals and pharmacies due to all the injuries and associated maladies, but Principal Hastings was getting pretty desperate and taking anyone that would take the jobs, as evidenced by the current gym teacher, who couldn't tell the difference between a bicep and a bicycle.

Dr Edwin was a rather stern looking man, with a thick beard and moustache that was so bushy that were it not for the eyes shining through some wondered if he actually had a face or if he was a walking mop. He was quite tall and heavy set, and he had a habit of standing over students in a rather intimidating way. He cast a look around some of the experiments.

"Alright, that's all going very nicely. Monty, that's some excellent work." Dr Edwin stated. "Hm…Calvin, you should probably turn down that Bunsen burner a little, we don't want anyone to have any accidents. These chemicals aren't dangerous, but they are very sticky and you will walk around for the remainder of the day green."

Brody pulled in close to the others as he walked past.

"I am NOT looking forward to that Speedwing guy coming back." He muttered. "If we hadn't surrounded him, I don't think he'd have bugged out the way he did."

"When the odds turn against you, run and come back at a better time. Standard Ninja textbook." Calvin sighed.

"Yeah, that's another thing, am I the only one worried about the fact he said Galactic NINJAS? You know, plural?" Hayley asked them. "The one we've met is tough, I don't want to think about the fact there are more of them out there."

"I just can't believe we were sucked in by all that posing and fancy stuff." Preston grumbled, taking a look over towards Sandy, who was struggling with her own experiment. Most of the class had pale blue liquid in their beakers which was on a slow, rolling boil. Hers looked a lot darker, almost purple, and was frothing up. She was going through her notes and staring at the beaker. Her frustration was becoming a little obvious. "Sandy…hey, Sandy…you need to turn down the Bunsen burner and add a little more base."

"THANK YOU, Mr Tien!" Dr Edwin called out. "But I believe this white coat means I'm the only one meant to be teaching!"

"Right…sorry." Preston said sheepishly. He looked to the others. "I mean, that whole thing looked rather silly but feigning stupidity, that's like the oldest trick in the book! Tommy Cooper made a career out of acting like an idiot on-stage but he was one of the best magicians in history!"

"Mr Tien, why am I still hearing your voice?" Dr Edwin asked over his shoulder.

"Sorry!" He called back.

"Hayley has a point though. If there are more than one of those Galactic Ninjas, we could be in for a pretty rough ride." Brody told them. "It looks like Odious was playing with kid gloves until now. Wait…Sarah, are you listening?"

Sarah looked up from her notes, though not really. She was using her notebook to hide the offer from Ray. She couldn't stop thinking about it. She had built her hoverboard some time ago, and she was incredibly proud of it. It was one of her longest and most involved projects. There'd been numerous failures along the way, and she was still always looking for ways to improve it, but she had always thought of it more as a form of personal transport. She had, of course, wondered about marketing it at a later date, though with no real thought about how. Business was more her dad's area of knowledge and even he said that he was more about numbers than marketing. However, if Ray was to be believed, by the end of the year, virtually every kid in America, if not most of the world could be zipping around on one of her hoverboards.

The offer alone was something that was more than a little tempting. She'd applied for various grants and scholarships, but competition was fierce for that, and there were no guarantees meaning her family was still potentially looking at funding college or university themselves. The number Ray had offered without actually thinking about it was more than enough to cover tuition almost anywhere, but she still didn't know how to really take the offer. Business wasn't her strongest area of expertise, even her cookie maker had only made a modest profit when all was said and done. She looked up, closing over her book.

"Huh?" She asked. "Oh…um…yeah, what about those Galactic Ninjas right?"

"Is everything OK?" Preston asked her.

"Yeah…yeah, sure!" She replied. "In fact,…guys, are you doing anything for lunch?"

"Oh…I need to take Kody to the vet." Hayley told them. "He's got worms and I need to pick up his prescription."

"I'm going with her." Calvin said, surprising precisely no one. "I have a few parts to pick up for an upgrade to Nitro."

"I've got my first lesson with Emma." Brody reminded her. She looked to Preston, but before he could answer, they heard a commotion coming from another table.

"Dr Edwin?" One of the students called out. "Sandy's experiment is looking weird!"

"Sandy, you're letting it get away from you." Dr Edwin told her. "You need to slowly add…wait…wait…I said…"

There was a flash, and the liquid in Sandy's beaker turned green, before spurting out, much of it ending up all over her. She tried to wipe off as much of it as she could but it was already becoming sticky. Dr Edwin slammed his hands on the table bad-temperedly and glared at her.

"Confound it girl! Can't you listen to the simplest of instructions?" He yelled at her. She pulled off her safety goggles and stared at him, looking a little confused and frightened by the display. "This is a perfectly simple experiment! I showed it to my seven-year-old GRANDSON and he got it right!"

"Hey, it's just a simple mistake…" Preston said, trying to intervene. He regretted it straight away.

"Mr Tien, do we need to talk about who the teacher is again?" Dr Edwin asked him. He looked at Sandy once more as the bell rang. "Get all this cleaned up! Mr Tien, since you want to teach, you can help her! Maybe she can get THIS right!"

As everyone packed up their things and made to leave, they looked to Preston who just sighed.

"It's fine, I'll catch up." He told them.

"Sandy, it's alright." Emma said as she tried to comfort her sister, who was now sobbing into her hands. "Sandy…Sandy, you need to look at me…"

"It's OK, I'll stay with her." Preston assured her. Brody came over to Emma.

"If you want to delay our lesson…"

"Sandy?" She asked, tapping her sister on the shoulder. Sandy finally looked up at her. "Are you going to be alright here with Preston? I can have my lesson with Brody another time."

Sandy just nodded. Emma looked a little reluctant to go, but it was obvious she was eager to go with Brody. Brody grabbed his bag.

"Is it alright if I pretend the punching bag is Dr Edwin?" Emma asked. Brody just smiled as they all filed out. Preston came over to Sandy, grabbing some tissues and cleaning fluid to start cleaning up.

"Alright, we'll get this cleaned up." Preston told her. He noticed that she wasn't doing anything. "Sandy? Sandy, are you OK?"

She still didn't answer. Preston started to clear up the mess, but Sandy stopped him.

"Why…why are you doing that?" She asked him. "It's my mess, I should clean it up!"

"I don't mind helping." Preston told her.

"But it's my mess!" She reiterated. "You don't have to help."

"Well, not according to Dr Edwin." Preston said with a nervous laugh. Sandy just sighed. "He…he told me I was to help."

"Right, of course." Sandy replied, grabbing some towels. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Preston said as he picked up her equipment and took it to a sink to start washing it. "Maybe after this I can walk you through it and see what happened?"

He looked to Sandy; whose back was to him as she cleaned the table. She didn't answer him. Preston started to run the tap, filling the sink with water.

"Maybe later." He suggested.

A long way from Summer Cove, a Greyhound arrived in the bus station in Blue Bay Harbour. Dane stepped down from the bus, throwing a large backpack over his shoulder. As he stepped away from the door, allowing other passengers to get off the bus, he turned and looked to the mountains.

"I never would have thought I'd find myself back here." He sighed, before starting to make his way towards the last place he knew of that anyone had seen Mariko.


	4. Mentoring Rangers

People's first lesson in Martial Arts was, as one would imagine, much like their first lesson in pretty much anything. The new student knows nothing about the subject, except perhaps a few things they'd picked up from TV or some people providing "helpful hints" that could sometimes just confuse the issue or at worst be outright just wrong, and much of the lesson was more about the sensei figuring out what the student was capable of physically so that they could ascertain how hard they could push them.

Like any other skill, Martial Arts was mostly a commitment to study. The mental side of things, learning moves, when it was appropriate to do them, what each technique did, the anatomy of an opponent in order to find the most effective targets, all of those were things that could be learned in time. The physical side of it was also something that could be built up, but given the nature of it, it was still important to know a base-line. Martial Arts required a lot of physical gifts as well as the mental. Strength, flexibility, reflexes, timing, speed, conditioning and balance were all important. Brody had been lucky with his Rangers in that most of them had at least a good foundation in some of these areas. Calvin hadn't had the best timing in the world, having been used to working slowly and methodically on his engines, but he already had good strength. Sarah had really good reflexes and flexibility but he just needed to curb some of her more impatient impulses. All of them had some kind of base he could work with while he built up others.

Emma, by observation had...precisely none of these gifts.

Well, she had a certain resilience he had to give her that much. He let out a sigh as she pulled herself off her butt for what felt like the thousandth time. After their warm-up and stretching, he'd given her one of the most basic lessons he could think of to assess her form. Virtually all striking Martial Arts had some variation on the "horse stance" or "riding stance". Essentially the student would stand with their feet a little wider than their shoulders and parallel, their knees bent so they were in a sort of high seating position like if they were riding a horse as the names implied. It was, he supposed, not really the most natural of positions for people to adopt and it wasn't uncommon for students to find it difficult to balance or even fall over once or twice but usually they got it pretty quickly. As soon as Emma started punching though, her balance went straight to hell and she managed to end up on her butt so many times Brody had lost count. Hell, she'd even once ended up on her face in a move that still baffled Brody with the sheer physics of how it was even possible! Her form was...well...being charitable...she did at least seem to know how to form a fist.

"Alright, um...I'll show you one more time." Brody said as he adopted the stance, bringing his fists to his hips as he sunk down. "The key to this is balance. Balance is key to this whole thing. What you need to be mindful of is how you're carrying your bodyweight. If your bodyweight remains central like this."

He threw a few punches out to show her.

"Then everything is good. But if your bodyweight shifts just a little bit..."

He held onto Emma and moved her body a little. It wasn't long before she started to overbalance and he had to catch her.

"A good place to start is to keep your body directly over your feet." He told her. "Now, I think that's good for today, if we finish up now you can hit the showers before afternoon class."

"Aw, but I want to keep going! Can't you show me something like...like a falcon punch or...or...maybe a kick?"

She threw her leg up in the air, only for the rest of her body to follow pretty soon afterwards. Brody had to catch her before she ended up on the back of her skull. He couldn't fault Emma's enthusiasm, that was one thing she had in spades.

"How about we learn to stand before we learn to fly?" He suggested. Another purpose to the basics was to assess the mental discipline of a student. Martial Arts were dangerous, and many of the techniques could cause very serious injuries. One of the duties of a sensei was ensuring that knowledge wasn't given to those who couldn't handle the responsibility of knowing how to inflict serious, crippling or even life-threatening injuries. It was one of the reasons why there were so few stories in the press about Martial Artists who killed people in bar fights or getting angry and beating up traffic wardens and suchlike. More often the time-wasters and those who just wanted to learn how to hurt people would quit after a few months of learning nothing more ambitious than very basic punches and blocks.

"I think that went really well don't you?" Emma asked enthusiastically as she gathered together her things.

"Well...I certainly know more about what you're capable of." Brody said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

"I'm so looking forward to our next lesson! When can we learn more?" She rushed out. Brody was more than a little bowled over by her lively personality. The fact she had to have more bruises than he thought was physically possible from a technique his dad had managed to teach him in an afternoon when he was five had not dampened her spirit in the slightest.

"Uh...well I'm busy most week nights, but...I guess we can keep doing this lunch times and maybe arrange some lessons for a couple of nights a week?" He suggested. Emma rushed over, hugging him tightly.

"Brody, you are the BEST!" She shrieked, before seeming to realise what she had done and backing away. She bowed in a quick, jerking motion. "Um...sensei."

"Yeah, OK." He replied cautiously giving her a little look. Emma seemed to stop talking and went back to gathering her gear. "Say Emma, you seem to be really into this stuff...why did you never take any lessons before now?"

"I just never got around to it. My mom...my birth mom...she was really into all this stuff, but she died when I was young." Emma told him. "My foster parents are really not into this kind of stuff. My dad doesn't even like violence in video games and my mom's really into that whole 'violence just creates violence' thing. I guess she never had a guy stick a knife in her face and ask for her wallet."

"If she did she'd be better off giving it to him." Brody told her. Emma just furrowed her brows, looking confused. "Look, right now I'm going to teach you the best lesson I've learned from all my years in Martial Arts. Fighting is really, REALLY dumb."

"Huh?" She asked.

"There are no guarantees in a fight! You don't know who the other guy is, for all you know he could be a former Green Beret or something." Brody pointed out. "Also, no matter how much you learn, how fast or strong you are, you can still get unlucky or make a mistake. All it takes is you to move the wrong direction at the wrong time and boom...now you're half a dozen teeth short of a full set. It isn't just a buzz-phrase to say fighting should be the last resort."

"So why train at all?" She asked him. "If you're not going to use it..."

"Do you buy car insurance with the intention of driving the wrong way down the freeway?" Brody asked. Emma just looked at him.

"I don't even have a learner's permit." She reminded him.

"Well, you know what I mean. It's there IN CASE you need it, not so that you can go out of your way to cash it in." Brody explained. "Truth be told, if a guy pulled a knife and asked for my wallet, I'd probably give it to him. It's not worth risking my life for a buck thirty seven and a bagel store loyalty card that's two shy from a free bagel."

"You only carry a buck thirty seven?" She asked him. "Oh! Which reminds me, how much for...?"

"Allowance day isn't until Friday." He told her, putting a hand on her wallet. "And there's no need for that. If you want to pay me back, see if you can get my phone working properly. The touchscreen is really unresponsive lately."

"I think I can manage that." She said, taking the phone from him as they headed for the showers.

In another part of the school, Sarah was sitting at a table by herself, absent-mindedly playing with Speedwing's Speed Star while she stared at the offer Raymond had given her. She couldn't help turning over in her mind how much the money would help. Six figures...the note in front of her was an offer of six figures for something she had put together in her garage. It had been a passion project for sure, one that had cost her a good couple of years of her life in work, a couple of sets of eyebrows, one or two trips to the hospital and even a month being grounded when it took the fire department to put out the fire the infamous Mark 1 board's demise had caused in their last home. It wasn't just college, it was college in style! She'd be able to study pretty much anywhere and still have enough for rent on a decent place for a little while until she supplemented it with a part-time job.

Of course that was if none of her scholarships turned up pay dirt. If one of them did, she could keep the money! Many kids left college with a mountain of debt that took years to pay off, and limited their options of a home afterwards. If she had that money after college, she'd be standing on a good firm base to do whatever she wanted. Taking a job was a much simpler decision if practicalities like the expense of a move or a home were already taken care of. There was no doubt about it, that money would be a tremendous boon.

Of course, a part of her did also wonder about just saying yes. Ray had been pretty quick to offer that check, and if there was one thing she learned from her dad, the first offer a person made was usually a low-ball to see if they could get away with a bargain. Was it possible she could squeeze a little more out of him? She looked up as someone flopped down in the table opposite her.

"Victor?" She asked. "Where's Monty?"

"He's off doing some extra-credit thing for his tech class." Victor stated. "We're not married you know...despite what certain graffiti in the boys' room might imply."

"So, you're at a loose end?" She asked.

"Looks like you are too." He answered. "I thought you and your friends would all be doing...you know...Spandex stuff."

"We're not married you know." She responded with the same tone as Victor had used. He just nodded, conceding the point.

"So what are you looking at?" He asked her. Sarah just groaned.

"Well, I want to tell someone, but apparently all of my friends are busy so...here." She told him. She handed him the paper, at which Victor just stared at it, before looking back to her.

"What's this?" He asked. "Preston's allowance?"

"It's an offer I received." She told him. "Some toy company exec wants to buy my hoverboard."

"That thing?" He asked, pointing at it.

"He seems to think it could be the next big thing. He told me he wants to start production in time for the Christmas rush." She informed him. "He just...handed me this like it was a pizza coupon."

"Pizza PARLOUR coupon more like!" Victor said, handing her back the piece of paper. "Are you going to take it?"

"I don't know." She told him. "I mean...it's a lot of money. A LOT of money! More than I'm likely to see in...maybe ever."

"But?" Victor asked. She picked up her hoverboard.

"I don't know, I spent a long time making this! So many weekends and late nights tinkering and improving. I have an entire cabinet in my room full of all the notes I took making it." She told him. "It sort of feels like I'm being asked to sell my kid you know?"

"Some people do that you know." He said, earning himself a death-glare from Sarah. "Sorry. So, what does the contract look like?"

"Contract?" She asked him.

"Yeah, the contract he showed you." Victor stated.

"He...didn't show me a contract." Sarah replied. "He said he wants to move on this quick to get it into production for Christmas."

"Well, I guess you could always talk to your dad or a lawyer or something...he DID let you talk to a lawyer didn't he?"

Sarah just stared at him for a moment, before he pointed to her hand.

"Hey, what's that?" He asked. She realised she was still playing with Speedwing's Speed Star.

"Oh...right, this. That monster we were fighting dropped it." She told him. "It increased his speed. Before the Green Ranger showed up and he dropped it we were really getting creamed."

"Wait...Green Ranger?" Victor asked. "Didn't he just get arrested or something by Agent Sterling?"

"It's a different Green Ranger. This one is a girl for a start." Sarah told him. "But this star, he had it and he loaded it into his sword like we do. I meant to tell the others about it but I forgot. They all had stuff to do."

"So what are you going to do with it?" Victor asked her.

"I don't know." She said honestly. "But since it seems to work like ours, it might be able to work with our tech."

"You want to use it?" Victor asked her. "Something a monster dropped."

"Brody's always talking about how the ninja used to always up their arsenal, even using their enemies' weapons against them." She said, looking at it. "Even without this thing he's still faster than anything I've seen, a little turbo boost could be handy."

"Uh...Sarah, you're talking about something a monster dropped." Victor reminded her. "I've seen posters and adverts all over the place telling you not to use flash drives you find lying around because it can have malware on it."

"Yeah, matching speed with speed...maybe even exceeding it." She said, inspecting the Speed Star. "I could always give it a test run somewhere quiet..."

"Sarah, you do know that sometimes you do this thing where you focus so much on one thing that you forget everything else right?" He asked her. She just looked up.

"Huh?" She asked. "Right...be really, really careful! Got it!" She responded. It was clear she wasn't listening.

"I wasn't talking about..."

"Victor, it's just an offer I have a week to decide!" She said as she started walking away. "I'm sure I can figure it out by then!"

As she disappeared, Victor just sat, scratching his head. He noticed that Sarah had dropped Ray's business card. He was considering going after her, but looking at the business card, he thought about something and pulled out his I-phone.

Preston was standing outside the girls' changing room, waiting for Sandy, holding a bag with her clothes. After cleaning up the lab, he had stopped by Clint's office to check the lost-and-found for something for her to wear until she could go home and get her own clothes cleaned.

He had seen how upset she was over messing up the experiment and he wanted to do what he could to make sure he limited the humiliation. While Dr Edwin was more than happy to let her walk around looking like She-Hulk for the rest of the day, Preston already knew she was having trouble with science and really didn't need any more reminders that she wasn't keeping pace with the course work.

Sandy came out of the changing room, wearing a Black Panther T-shirt and a pair of track suit pants.

"Think it's me?" She asked.

"You look fine." Preston assured her. "It looks like that shampoo got all the green out."

"Yeah, that was great!" She said, handing it back to him. "How did you find it?"

"Let's just say in the course of learning my magic tricks it wasn't always a trick when I changed myself a few interesting colours." He assured her. Sandy laughed. It was great to see. Preston just looked to her. "You really shouldn't let Dr Edwin get you down. I can help you."

"That would be great. You're a much better teacher than him." She said as a buzzing sound started. Sandy didn't seem to notice, but Preston did. He pointed to her bag.

"It sounds like your phone's going." He said to her. Sandy went into her bag, pulling it out.

"It's just a text from Emma. She's going on about her lesson with Brody." She told him. "Now, the Black Panther T-shirt is so much more her speed. She's really into all that kind of stuff."

Sandy started texting, leaving Preston holding her bag. The bell started ringing to indicate that lunch time was over, and Preston turned to leave, but as he got a little way down the hall, he realised Sandy wasn't following him. He turned to see her still standing, texting Emma.

"Sandy, we need to get going, you can talk to Emma in class." Preston told her. She didn't answer. He approached her. "Sandy, we need to go. Sandy? Sandy?"

He was pretty much right on top of her but she still didn't respond, concentrating on her text. Preston touched her, causing her to look at him.

"Sandy, the bell's gone, we need to go." He told her.

"Oh, yeah...right." She said, taking her bag from him. Preston stood and thought about it for a second as she passed him. Suddenly he thought about a few things that he hadn't really taken much notice of before. He remembered that Principal Hastings had been trying to tell him something about her but got interrupted.

"Sandy?" He called out, getting no response. He ran up behind her and touched her shoulder, causing her to turn towards him.

"Preston, you said we had to go..."

"I just called out your name." He told her. She just looked at him. "But...you couldn't hear me could you?"

"Preston..."

"Sandy, are you...um..." He stammered uncomfortably trying to think what was a delicate way to ask. She finally just nodded.

"Yes, Preston, I'm deaf." She told him. "I got meningitis when I was a kid. I survived, obviously but I lost my hearing."

She could see the way Preston was looking at her. It was the look she always hated when too many people knew. Principal Hastings knew because she needed to be informed of the medical needs of her students in case of emergencies, but she didn't like to let too many people know.

"I don't like letting too many people know. They always treat me differently if they do." She told him. "They taught me some sign language but I learned to read lips because I wanted to be more like everyone else. As long as people are looking at me when they talk to me I'm fine, but Dr Edwin with that stupid beard..."

"You couldn't see what he was saying." Preston surmised. She just nodded.

"Please, promise me you won't tell everyone." She told him. "I really hate it when people treat me differently."

"If you don't want me to tell people I won't." Preston assured her. "It's up to you if you want them to know."

"Thanks Preston." She replied with a smile. "I really appreciate that."

"OK, now we really DO need to get to class." Preston told her, spotting Clint rounding a corner. "My dad will NOT like me getting another tardy slip!"

With that, they both turned and ran down the hall, heading for their next class.


	5. Establishing Trust

At the end of the school day, the kids practically leapt from their desks and workstations as the school bell sounded. Like always, the days always seemed longest at the beginning of the week, though of course it was longest for the Rangers. As they gathered their things, the Rangers all came together.

"That was a brutal day!" Hayley grumbled. "I never thought I'd see the day I hate ninjas."

"Yeah, that Speedwing guy is no joke, that's for sure." Brody agreed. "Mick was going to come over to the farm and do some research, see if he can't find some other accounts of those Galactic Ninjas. He seemed to be under the impression they were famous so maybe there are other accounts that can let us know how many we're up against or some of their tactics or something."

"Famous ninjas?" Calvin asked. "Isn't that kind of an oxymoron?"

"Yeah, if they were doing it right no one would know who they were, but something tells me our friends here are the type that like to leave a calling card or something." Brody answered. "Arrogance and obsession with fame can be a powerful thing, even for people that really should be trying to keep themselves unknown."

"Just seems kind of dumb to me." Calvin stated.

"It is, but it's not like it's uncommon." Brody stated. "Billy "The Kid" H Bonny, Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, Al Capone, Bugs Moran, Tom Dillinger…some of your country's most prominent figures were criminals who couldn't help but get their faces on posters and in newspapers."

"OUR country?" Hayley asked. "You do know you were born here right? This is your country too!"

"Technically I've spent more of my life off this planet than in any country on it." Brody reminded them. "So, you all coming? Levi's already texted me to say he's got dinner plans."

"I should really get back to Kody and mom." Hayley told them. "Kody's not feeling too great thanks to the worms and mom…well…you know."

"Probably an idea, it's been a tough time for them too." Brody said. "Preston?"

"I've…um…I've got plans too." Preston said as he saw Sandy and Emma talking.

"Sarah?" Brody asked.

"Sorry, I've got some stuff to think about." She told him. She was still trying to get her mind around the offer she'd received from Ray earlier in the day. Brody just sighed.

"Alright, I guess it's just me and Mick then." Brody responded. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Hopefully I find something."

"Good luck!" Hayley called out as they started to go their own ways. Preston made his way over to Sandy and Emma. He could see they were talking, so he made a point of coming in from the side Emma was standing at so that Sandy could see her coming. Both girls stopped talking as Sandy looked up to Preston and smiled.

"Preston, hi!" Sandy said, beaming brightly at him. "Glad the day's over?"

"You have no idea." Preston answered. Sandy nudged Emma, at which they both laughed. "What?"

"Oh, it's a running joke." Sandy assured him. "It's…it's nothing personal. It's just…um…"

"Sandy told me you figured it out." Emma assured him. "You…don't anything by it but whenever someone finds out about her, they always start talking louder and a lot slower."

"I…I did?" Preston asked.

"Yeah, you did." Sandy told him. "Don't worry, I know you mean well but…I don't need you to talk really slowly. Sure, if you rattle off a hundred words a minute like Monty does it becomes difficult to understand. And…it really doesn't matter how loudly you talk."

"It doesn't?" Preston asked her.

"Well, if you use a bullhorn right next to my head, I'll feel it but no." She answered. "I'm completely deaf."

"OK, uh…thanks for…educating me." Preston said humbly. "I'll keep that in mind in future. So, do you want me to walk you home?"

"That would be nice." Sandy answered. "Do you mind Emma?"

"No, we can finish what we were talking about at home." Emma answered.

"So, where do you guys stay?" Preston asked.

"Oh, we have a big old house over on Regent." Sandy told him. "If it's a bit far out your way we'll understand."

"Nah, it's just up Elm." Preston told her.

"Really?" Emma asked. "We've been going up Main."

"No, that's the long way! Trust me, this is so much faster." Preston assured them.

"Well, lead the way then!" Sandy replied. "I think we'd like learning about this short cut."

Over in Blue Bay, it was starting to head towards early evening by the time Dane got to a clearing with a small lake and a waterfall. It was deep in the mountains and even without ninja-streaking Dane had made good time getting up here in a few hours on foot. It was challenging terrain even for experienced walkers and climbers. Of course, this was all by design. After all, if someone didn't have the fitness to get up here and the mental resilience to keep going through some rough terrain, especially in inclement weather then putting them through the rigorous and at time torturous training of the ninja could be considered nothing short of cruelty.

Dane dropped his bag as he got to the clearing. It had been years since he had last been here, and yet it all looked much the same. Moving into the centre of the clearing he recalled one of the last times he'd been here.

A younger Dane was staring out into the night, taking in what he believed would be the last time he'd ever look out on this view. Life had been cruel, and while he knew that could be the case, he was always one to believe in personal responsibility. The sad fact was that while life had dealt him more than a few harsh blows and unfair hands, he couldn't deny that much of what was happening now, the things that made it impossible for him to stay were his own doing. He had no one to blame but himself that the Academy would no longer be a home to him.

It was no exaggeration to say that The Academy had been his life. He had arrived when he was just a child, and from that day he had barely left other than for survival training, Academy business, infiltration training and suchlike. Sensei Watanabe had made it clear that he was grooming Dane to one day take over the Academy when he retired. He did ask once why he wasn't grooming his son Cam for that role and Kanoi had told him that he made a promise to his mother long ago that Cam would never take on the dangerous life of a ninja. Dane did believe that was a somewhat weak excuse, but given some of his own decisions he was in no place to judge.

He became aware of another presence, and wiped away a tear as he turned to look at her. It was Mariko. As sharp as his senses were, he knew he would only be aware of her presence if she wanted him to be. She had come to him, probably to make some last-minute plea to get him to stay.

"Dane…"

"Mariko, I know what you're going to say." Dane responded.

"Dane, please, don't go!" She begged him. "This is your home! This is your life…"

"It was my life." He told her. "Now, I have to find a new one."

"Dane, please don't go! You can't do this!" She begged him.

"Do you have any idea what it's like for me?" He demanded. "I believed I was going to be there forever! I thought…I thought I was going to be buried here but now, now I look around and everything makes me feel…"

"Sadness?" She asked.

"Sick!" He declared. "I can't…I can't deal with everything that we did! Don't you get it? I can't…I can't be around any of it anymore!"

"I…I know I've done some terrible things…I know I can't ask you to forgive me…"

"This isn't about you!" Dane snapped at her.

"You're taking our son away…God knows where!" She yelled at him.

"You promised you'd NEVER say that!" Dane yelled in a rage. "We made an arrangement. You knew that Aiden was always to be our child…"

"Do you think I gave you a son because of some arrangement? Because we were friends?" Mariko asked him. "You have to have known how I felt about you!"

"I do." Dane replied. "And that's one of the things that sickens me the most. I've used you Mariko. I used you in a way that makes me…makes me sick to my core because I never believed I was capable of such things. As much as this place reminds me of her, it reminds me of what I am and it makes my skin crawl. I can't be around that. I can't be around you. I need to make a fresh start far from all of this for the sake of my children."

"Dane, please…"

"I've not done a lot of things right Mariko and for that I can only apologise, but for the sake of my sanity, to be able to be ANY kind of father to my children, I have to leave all of this behind." Dane told her. "Especially you. Please, try to respect that."

She continued to plead with him as he went back through the waterfall. He had stopped listening, but by the time he was passing through the waterfall, he couldn't hear her. She was yelling something to him. Back then, he didn't care what she was saying. He figured she was probably trying to bargain with him, perhaps telling him she would leave or begging him to stay with other promises. Now though, now he believed that perhaps she was trying to tell him about the other child. She was pregnant with the child conceived in his moment of weakness when he left.

He was brought back to the present as he became aware of something on the wind. He stood up, looking around. He wasn't alone. The plateau was a natural resting place on the mountain. Many times, climbers completely unaware of the academy even set up camp here, but that didn't mean that The Academy wouldn't do what they could to keep an eye on anyone who lingered too long. He had performed many of those patrols himself over the years. He went to his bag, rummaging around as though looking for provisions or equipment to set up a camp as he did a quick headcount. Normally patrols were a minimum of five, but could be as many as twelve people depending on how high they expected the threat level to be, with reserves within calling distance in case things got too out of hand.

He pulled out a flashlight, but instead of turning it on, he threw it into some nearby bushes. As he heard someone grunting in pain, he adopted a guard as guards started to arrive.

"So, including the one in the bush I make that six." He said. "Unless you have more in the lake."

As though to answer his suggestion, three more came out of the lake, while the one he'd hit with the flashlight staggered out of the bush, nursing a large bump on his head. Dane looked around for a moment, assessing the situation. Nine guards in total.

With a yell, they all rushed him, no doubt to avenge their friend. Dane, though, was not considered among the greatest ninjas that ever lived for no reason. He managed to always position himself to limit how many of the attackers could come at him. Half the time they were getting in each other's way or hitting their own allies while he dodged and positioned himself in place to strike.

One of them called out something and three of them in red-trimmed uniforms leapt high into the air, treading the air before tossing a three-way wind attack down at him. Dane caught it, twisting it around and adding his own power before casting it back, causing them all to spiral back into the forest, crashing through the branches of the trees. He turned his attention to the remaining six, who were still nursing their wounds.

"You…you know our ways?" One of them asked.

"That's one way of putting it." A voice came as four figures came through the waterfall, walking across the lake to the shore. "Of course, you also know the signal so if you'd wanted you could have avoided this if you wanted."

"Well, I figured these students could do with some tuition." Dane responded. "Their guards and their techniques tipped me off to their inexperience and as for this one…he needs to learn to use a little less body-spray…and stand downwind."

"I'll be sure to pass those notes along." Cam said as he removed his hood, coming towards Dane. "It's good to see you Dane."

The two men shook hands, before Cam gestured to one of the students, who was still rubbing down one of his arms.

"Take Master Romero's bag to his cabin." Cam told them. Dane could hear some whispering among the students. Even now, almost twenty years after he left, his name and his reputation preceded him. "And report to your sensei for debriefing. I'm sure they will all have ideas for how to improve."

As the students left, Tori, Dustin and Shane all removed their masks, approaching him.

"So, what brings you here?" Dustin asked him.

"It's a personal matter." He responded. "Is there somewhere we can discuss this in private?"

"Certainly. You still know the way to Ninja-Ops, right?" Cam asked, gesturing him inside. Dane followed the others, disappearing into the waterfall.

Over at the Thompson house, Sarah was in her room, finishing off her homework. Not her school homework, she usually finished that pretty easily and early. Sometimes she even had it done before she got home to leave herself free to explore other projects. Projects like her hoverboard.

She wasn't working on that tonight though, if she was, she'd be in the garage. There was more room to work down there, but since it was one of the areas deemed "accessible" by the family, it really wasn't the ideal place to work on anything Ranger related. The family had a rule that there were areas of the house that were deemed "accessible", meaning that anyone could use them any time, areas like the bathrooms, living room, garage, kitchen and suchlike and there were areas that were dubbed "private". Namely the bedrooms. If Sarah wanted to go into her parents' room she had to ask for permission and as long as she remembered to put her laundry in the hamper and remove any dirty dishes then her parents would need to ask her permission if they wanted to enter her room. The spare room on the ground floor that Al had taken as his "office", by virtue of having his clients' personal details also counted, but not only did everyone respect that anyway, it was unlikely either Sarah or her mother had any real interest or reason to go in there anyway.

She was analysing the Speed Star, trying to figure out how it worked and more importantly if it was compatible or could be MADE compatible with the Rangers' technology. She had watched how Speedwing clipped it into his sword and spun it to activate it, exactly like they did with their Power Stars. It could, of course be entirely coincidental and there was no reason to believe it would just work or even be safe. After all diesel and gas engines both filled the tank the same way but if one put diesel into a gas engine or vice versa then the engine would simply stop working and be very expensive to repair. Given the powers involved, Sarah really didn't want to take any chances. If the tech wasn't compatible, at best it wouldn't work, at worst, the kind of powers involved backfiring through the user were…well…she doubted there'd be much left of the unfortunate Ranger that tried it.

She had it hooked up to a program Kendall had given her that was used to assess any of her new ideas. Given the incident with the Ninja Clone Star she was a lot more cautious with the new weaponry ideas she wanted to suggest to the others. Seeking a second opinion, she had called up Kendall who was on a video chat with her, receiving the same results.

The energy was different, but it was similar enough that her simulation seemed to show that it would probably work in their swords with minimal adjustments. She looked closely at the composition of the scan of the Speed Star.

"Now, this is interesting." She said, checking out the chemical make-up. "The Speed Star…it looks like it's made of Super Ninja Steel but…not."

The Speed Star was indeed superficially identical to Super Ninja Steel. That was to say it was composed of the same elements. The same elements were even linked up the same way, but in the exact mirror image formation. In nature, lactic acid existed in two distinct forms. The lactic acid produced in fatigued muscles and the lactic acid produced in milk that had gone sour were chemically identical but their formation was flipped. No one was entirely sure why but it was what made them both distinct from each other. She wrote down her findings.

"The base radiation is different too, almost like its opposite." Sarah mused to herself. "This could be a coincidence but it could indicate it was from…somewhere else. I'd need to check, but…is this similar to the results we found the time Drakkon showed up?"

She heard a knock on the door and Al's voice called through.

"Sarah, your mom wanted me to tell you dinner will be on the table soon." Al told her.

"I'll be right down." She told him, before a thought occurred to her. "Dad…can you come in here a minute?"

Al opened the door as she turned off her monitor and turned to face him.

"Is everything alright sweetheart?" He asked her. She pulled the piece of paper with the offer from Ray out of her pocket, playing with it between her fingers.

"Dad, you know more about business than anyone I know." She told him.

"Well, I'd like to think so." He responded. "I'm pretty sure my clients would too."

"How…how do companies normally go about making deals?" She asked him. "Like…say I made something and you liked it and wanted it…how would you go about buying it?"

"Is this for school?" He asked her. She didn't like lying to her dad, but she nodded, thinking it was a good cover story. The school had already given the students one business studies project to start a small business which produced some results of varying disaster. Sarah's project was considered a success in that it broke even, leaving her with some pocket-change after she helped out Billy. It seemed like the real lesson there was that businesses were tough and often failed regardless of how hard one worked if they weren't astute enough to figure out how to run them effectively…and weren't lucky too! He sat down on her bed. "Well, first I would reach out to the person that owned the product, namely you, I'd set up a meeting, then I'd let them know I was interested. I'd make a pitch, set down an offer then I'd see if they're interested."

"An offer." Sarah asked him. "So, you wouldn't have a contract ready when you first meet someone?"

"You are curious about all of this aren't you?" He asked her with a smile. "I think this is the longest we've talked about all of this without your eyes rolling into the back of your head and hearing you snoring."

"Dad, would you have a contract?" She asked him.

"It depends how quickly I wanted to move." Al told her. "Personally, yeah, I'd have at least a preliminary contract available at the meeting. It gives both sides something to look at to thrash out details. You know, things like patents, percentage ownership, legal rights, profit share…"

"That's a lot of words!" She stated.

"Now you know how I feel when you start talking about this stuff." He said, gesturing around her room. "Now, we can talk about this some more, but from the smell of things your mom's chicken madras is nearly ready, and you know as well as I do that, we do not miss that!"

With that, Al headed out of the room. Sarah started to run a simulation on her computer, knowing it would be ready by the time they were done with dinner. It would show her the likely results of an attempt to use the Speed Star, but in her mind, she couldn't help thinking about what her dad had said. After dinner, she had a lot to do. Figure out if the Speed Star was a potential new weapon, and to call Ray to ask about another meeting.

Over at the Romero Farm, Mick and Brody were going over some accounts Mick had managed to pull from some databases. Between some of the old Galaxy Warriors forum boards and a call to Viera, they'd managed to get a hold of some information. It turned out that there was quite a lot of stories about the Galactic Ninjas. Of course, whether or not that produced any information was another matter.

It turned out that despite their eccentricities, the Galactic Ninjas didn't tend to leave enough survivors to really come up with any reliable accounts. Most of what was known about them was pieced together from the aftermath of their attacks and their distinct calling cards. Curiously many places had some survivors, normally only a few, sometimes as low as single-figures, but when asked none of the survivors remembered anything. Literally anything, most of them didn't even know their own names!

"And yet another dead end." Brody sighed. "This world said something about a giant armoured that attacked and that no one could counter. It said he kept changing up his attacks so much no one could keep track."

"That sounds like these attacks." Mick said, gesturing to some. "I've seen a couple of different MOs', possibly different members of the group, but that still doesn't even tell us how many there are. For all we know there could be a whole academy of Galactic Ninjas out there."

"Now that's a scary thought." Brody conceded. "Well, Speedwing wasn't exactly quiet. Maybe we can get him to tell us more about his team."

"It's possible." Mick replied. "So, in the meantime do you have any thoughts on our other mystery?"

"You mean the Green Ranger?" Brody asked. "I haven't been able to think of much else. We've not had much luck with Green Rangers."

"So, what do we know?" Mick asked.

"We're pretty convinced it's a girl." Brody told him. "Much beyond that…we really don't know. Her powers at least superficially appear to be like ours but that's no reason to say they are."

Mick pulled up some images of the Green Ranger, along with some footage of the first battle.

"It looks like she's on your side at least." Mick replied.

"You know what they say about appearances." Brody answered. "It'll take more than one last-minute save to convince me she's on the level."

"What would that be?" He asked her.

"Learning how she got those powers for a start." Brody replied sharply. "Her style…if it could be called that…is pretty basic, if she didn't have powers she'd have been left as a skid-mark in seconds. Which means that costume is more than just…"

Brody's words tailed off as something caught his eye.

"…cosplay." He went over to a wall, inspecting it.

"What is it?" Mick asked him.

"There was a Ninja Star here." Brody told him.

"There was?" Mick asked him. "What was it doing there?"

"I didn't take finding out about my dad and Mariko very well OK?" Brody asked. "So, you didn't find it here?"

"Why would I look for a Ninja Star in the wall?" Mick asked. "I packed up everything from the workshop, the Nexus Prism, the Super Ninja Steel…"

"Mick, are you sure you didn't take the one from here?" Brody asked him.

"I didn't pull anything from the walls." He responded.

"Mick, the Power Star I threw…it was made of Super Ninja Steel, but it's not here now!" Brody told him. "You only moved the Nexus Prism after dad left. It was here!"

"Wait…are you saying…?"

"Mick, that's how she got her powers!" Brody told him. "She was in here and we didn't even know it!"

"But how?" Mick asked. "Your dad set up all those traps and…"

"She was here!" Brody reiterated. "She broke into our base!"

"Brody, the Nexus Prism isn't exactly known for choosing people at random." Mick reminded him. "If it gave her powers, maybe this is someone to reach out to…"

"Mick, she was in my home!" Brody snapped at him. "All that tells me is that until further notice, she can't be trusted!"


	6. Split Second Choices

As morning broke over Blue Bay Harbour, Dane was already awake and beginning his morning routine. He never in his wildest dreams imagined he'd be back here after he had chosen to leave all those years ago. Given the fact he had already seen students whispering and making suspiciously close passes to his quarters (something he made a note to inform Cam of since apparently a lot of the newer students had a LOT to learn about invisibility if they wanted to progress any further in their training), it seemed no one else did. He wasn't exactly comfortable with the title of "legend", but he knew his reputation around the academy, and it seemed it lived on long after he left.

He was just finishing getting cleaned up before getting ready to go and see Cam in Ninja Ops. It had been a long time since he'd been there, but his respect and reverence for the academy and especially the Headmasters' Chambers were still deeply ingrained in him. One did not simply walk into the Headmasters' Chambers, they needed to show their respect by being properly groomed and attired. Sometimes students receiving disciplinary reprimands would be dragged in, but other than that it was a matter of honour to ensure one was properly groomed, and wearing their uniform in an appropriate state. He'd scheduled an appointment with Cam for the following day to give him time to rest up, eat and get himself prepared.

He went from his bathroom back into his living quarters where his old uniform was laid out ready. If it was a long time since he'd been here, it was even longer since he'd worn his uniform. Getting dressed, he stopped as he heard a knock on the door. He zipped up his uniform to ensure he was decent for visitors.

"Come in." He beckoned. The door opened and Tori came in. "You're early."

"I just wanted to check that you were moving." She told him. "We find sometimes when people spend an extended time away from here, they…get out of the usual sleeping pattern."

"I lived on a farm; I've always gotten up with the dawn chorus." Dane said with a little smirk. "I've seen people sleep through earthquakes but I've yet to meet anyone that can defeat the morning cry of the neighbours' cockerels."

"You moved to a farm?" She asked him.

"I never did feel comfortable in a city." Dane confessed. "All those people, all that bustle. I mean, I have GONE to cities and I go into town for supplies but I guess I was out here too long. I like the quiet, somewhere I can see and hear things coming."

"Personally, I was always a city girl." Tori answered. "I mean, don't get me wrong I love it up here, but I always felt more comfortable around other people. Between my business in the city and Blake, it's easier for us to have a place in the city."

"I'll tell you one thing for free, I never thought I'd be back here." Dane told her. "But, I need some information that I think only Cam can provide." Tori started to shift a little uneasily.

"Cam's…probably waiting." She told him. "We should probably…you know…"

"Probably." Dane answered.

As he followed Tori, he couldn't help thinking about her reaction to him being back, and what he said about seeking information from Cam. He was starting to wonder if Cam had sent her to fetch him or if she had come for some other reason.

Over in Summer Cove, Sarah was heading to school on her hoverboard when a limo pulled up alongside her. She rolled her eyes as the window rolled down and she saw that it was Raymond.

"Sarah, hi! Long time no see!" He said cheerfully as the car slowed right down, rolling at the same speed as her hoverboard so they could talk.

"It was only yesterday." She reminded him.

"Yeah, well…in business a day is a long time." Raymond told her. "I was a little disappointed I never heard back from you. I was hoping to get a call."

"I've still got some things to consider." Sarah told him. "Besides…I lost your card. I'm sorry, I was going to look up the number and…"

"It's quite alright, I lose those things all the time." He assured her. "So, have you thought about…?"

"I said I'm still thinking about it and…wait…have you been following me?" She asked him.

"Sarah, look, I'm just trying to get this all sewn up for both of us." He told her. "You are quite literally standing on dynamite with that board! You know the guy that made those other hoverboards? The stupid things with the wheels that all the celebrities have? That thing made an absolute fortune! Can you imagine what one that actually does hover would make?"

"Ray, I've been thinking…a lot of this is…I mean the offer is…"

"If the offer is what's bothering you, it can be worked out!" He rushed out. "I mean if it's the number you're worried about, we can always discuss that."

"Oh, the number is…wait…what?" She asked. "So, you're willing to raise the number like…OK, that's not the point…"

"No, it really isn't. Stop the car!" He called out. He got out to talk to Sarah as she kicked up her board. "Look, Sarah I'm not kidding about how serious I am about this. I honestly think this could be the Rubik's Cube, the Teddy Rukspin, the, I don't know, Tickle-Me Elmo of this generation and I want to get in on the ground floor of it before anyone else finds out what you have and snatches it up!"

"It's just, all of this it's just so fast and…" Sarah started to say, struggling to think of what she wanted to say. She was trying to remember what her dad was telling her the night before. "I think maybe if you had something in writing I would feel a little better?"

"Well, if you're that insistent, then we can have something drawn up." Ray told her. "You know that Chinese place at the corner of Fifth? I have a table there for lunch, if you come over then I'll have something drawn up by my legal department by then."

"I think…yeah, that would probably make me feel a bit better." Sarah said, nodding. "Alright, I could be there by…one?"

"You won't regret this!" He assured her, shaking her hand. "I'll have my driver here pick you up. You don't mind riding in a limo, do you?"

"Well, my best friend is a Tien and one of my friends is the Crown Prince of Zandar so…no, I've no problem with a limo." She answered. Ray just chuckled.

"I like that sense of humour!" He told her, getting back in. "I'll see you then!"

As he pulled away, Sarah turned and made her way up the stairs, heading into the school. She made her way to the shop class where the others were already assembled, discussing something. Brody had messaged them all to arrange a meeting to discuss Ranger business.

As she got there, Levi closed the door behind her.

"Alright, we're all here." Calvin said. "Now, can you tell us what this is about? The suspense is killing us."

"As you know, Mick and I were doing research on the Galactic Ninjas, hoping to find something we might be able to use against them." Brody told them. "Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of what we've learned is…well…it's thin."

"From what little we do know they tend not to leave behind a lot of reliable witnesses." Mick informed them. "Most of their witnesses are either highly traumatised or their information was second, third or even fourth-hand. It looks like most of the witnesses they left were more there to spread their mystique and create an aura a reputation about them."

"Like the ninja did here." Calvin said, recalling his lessons from Brody. The ancient ninja used psychology as a weapon far more powerful than any blade or poison. While they did train their bodies and their minds to be able to perform some amazing feats matching or even surpassing those of a lot of professional athletes, often those that were not privy to their secrets were left seeing feats that looked on the surface to be superhuman. People seemingly blocking blades with their bare hands when in fact they were wearing climbing claws hidden within their hand wrappings, people disappearing without a trace using simple distractions, simple explosives…the rumours of the capabilities of the ninja went from superhuman physical feats of strength to rumours of actual magic. The ninja, for their part, were more than happy to stoke these rumours. Fighting beings that were described as everything from superhuman wizards to daemons and in some cases even Gods was a very different prospect to asking someone to fight another, albeit highly trained human. It seemed like the Galactic Ninja, for all their apparent eccentricities given the only one they'd met, still practiced this very powerful trick. "So, their strength might be exaggerated?"

"Even with exaggeration their skills are terrifying." Mick informed them. "Near as we can tell their stock in trade is planetary level extermination. Warlords pay them to clear out any troublesome local populations so they can sell off the planets for their resources."

"like an intergalactic version of a chop shop selling cars for spare parts?" Hayley asked. "That's terrifying."

"Unfortunately, right now we don't know anything more about them." Mick continued. "But maybe when that Speedwing guy shows up again we can get something out of him."

"Yeah, if he's not too busy kicking our butts." Preston stated.

"We've also found one other thing." Brody told them. "We figured out where the Green Ranger got her powers."

"Really?" Levi asked. "Where?"

"The same place as us." Brody told them. "When I found out about our…um…Levi and our uh…family…situation. I had a…moment."

"Moment?" Levi asked.

"The Ninja Star." He explained. Levi just nodded.

"What?" Sarah asked. "What is it?"

"Brody threw a Ninja Star into a wall." He told them. "But how would that…?"

"The star isn't there anymore, but neither me nor Mick removed it." Brody told them. "Which means someone else did."

"The star was made of Super Ninja Steel." Mick explained. "And we figure that it was taken before the Nexus Prism was moved back to the school…"

"But wait, both of them were in your workshop. No one knew they were there." Hayley stated.

"And you have traps and alarms set up around the farm." Calvin agreed.

"Which means whoever it is knows more about us than I'm comfortable with." Brody told them. "They managed to get into and out of the farm without any of us knowing!"

"Brody, all of us were there when the Green Ranger last showed up." Hayley reminded him. "No offence but the way she fought hardly screams 'master ninja' to us."

"But she managed to get past our traps which means she knows how to avoid them!" Brody replied pointedly. "And since she came here anyway, she obviously knows who we are somehow."

"Oh, uh, guys…I know you don't like it when I harp on about my Ranger experience…"

"Sarah, you were tech support for the Amber Beach team." Preston reminded her.

"Well, in the interest of adding my experience…Ranger Powers aren't known for choosing people for no reason." She told them. "If the Green Ranger did get her powers from the Nexus Prism, maybe we should give her a chance."

Just then, the alarm sounded. Brody and the team all assembled around one of the monitors.

"Well, it looks like Speedwing is back." Sarah commented.

"Alright, the rest of this can wait. Right now, we have a turkey to pluck!" Brody stated.

"But what if the Green Ranger shows up?" Preston asked him. Brody just looked to the others. It was a great question; one he wasn't sure he had a good answer to.

"We cross that bridge if we come to it." He told them. "If she helps, she helps. If she gets in the way…"

He couldn't even think of a way to say that, instead just gesturing to the team to follow him. The last thing they needed was something to complicate matters against when they still had no idea what kind of danger the Galactic Ninjas really posed.

Back in Blue Bay Harbour, Dane was sitting with Cam, Shane, Dustin and Tori. The silence in the room as they just stared at him while he relayed the whole sorry tale spoke volumes. For obvious reasons he wasn't keen on telling anyone else about his secrets, his shame, but he knew that at very least Cam needed to know if he was going to explain what he needed from him. While he'd have preferred it if he only told Cam, as the other sensei in the academy, Shane, Dustin and Tori all had a right to be a part of the meeting too. Dustin was the one that finally said something.

"Wow!" He stated. "That's…that's quite a story."

"I know what all of you must think of me. Frankly I deserve it." Dane told them. "What I did to Mariko was unforgiveable. But please, I need your help now."

"We always wondered why she left. Even dad was quiet on the whole subject." Cam answered. "So, what is it you need from us exactly?"

"I need to know where Mariko is now." Dane told them.

"Dude, I don't mean to sound judgemental or anything but…do you not think maybe this is one of those 'better left alone' things?" Shane asked him.

"It's not as simple as that." Dane told him. "Look, I don't want to explain any further, but…I really need to find her."

"Dane, normally we would but just like you, we made some promises to Mariko." Cam told him. "Even if it wasn't for that, no one's heard from her in years. She could be literally anywhere."

"I know it's a long-shot, but I just…need to see her." Dane told them. "I just need to know her last known location. I can look myself from there. Please, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

"I'm sorry Dane, but I'm afraid we can't." Cam answered. "Mariko fell off our grid when she left, and we have to respect her decision to do so."

"But…"

"Dane, if she wanted you to follow her, she'd have reached out by now." Cam told him. "But, if you insist, we'll put it to a vote. Shane?"

"I have to say I kind of get where she's coming from." Shane said. "I'm siding with Cam on this."

"I'm siding with Cam too." Dustin replied. "Sorry Dane.

Tori didn't say anything, waving them off, but it was the second time that Dane noticed her seeming reluctant. Cam and the others got up from the table.

"You're welcome to the hospitality of the academy, but I'm afraid we can't help you any further." Cam told him.

As they left, Dane remained in Ninja Ops to consider what to do from here. It took him a little while to realise that Tori had stayed behind.

"Tori?" He asked.

"Dane, I…I had no idea." Tori stammered. "I knew…I suspected Mariko might have felt something for you but I had no idea I swear."

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Dane, Mariko gave me her diary before she left." Tori told him. "I remembered how close she and Aiden were so when we figured out Levi was Aiden; I gave him the diary. I figured she'd want him to have it. I had no idea I swear."

"YOU gave him the diary?" Dane asked her.

"I swear, if I'd known the trouble it would cause, I'd never have given it to him." She said sadly. "Look, I…I can't begin to claim I understand what I feel about any of this…but if what you say is true, if you have another kid out there…I can't be the one that stands in your way."

"I don't understand." Dane responded.

"Aiden wasn't the only one Mariko was close to." Tori responded. "She told me she grew up in San Francisco."

She handed him an address.

"I can't guarantee anything, but she came here when she was a kid, so if she was going to go anywhere it makes sense, she'd go the one place outside the academy she actually knew." Tori responded.

"Tori, I…thank you." He replied. Tori just shook her head.

"I have no idea if this helps, but please, just…if you do find her…make it right." Tori told him.

"I'll try." He assured her. "Thank you, Tori."

Meanwhile, over in Summer Cove, the Rangers arrived to the familiar sight of citizens fleeing for their lives, but unusually on this occasion they could also hear a clashing of weapons indicating that someone was already fighting.

When they got there, they found the Green Ranger had indeed appeared to beat them to the battle somehow. She was trying hard, but was already being overmatched. She crashed into a car, caving in the roof after one of his attacks sent her high into the air.

"HA! You call yourself a ninja?" He taunted her. "You Earth ninjas must have much lower standards than we do! I wouldn't let someone that fights like you polish my weapons!"

"Let's see how you feel when you have to take on the rest of us!" Brody told him. Sarah gestured to the Green Ranger.

"She took him on by herself." She pointed out. "She was fighting to protect these people!"

"Go see if she's alright." Brody told her. "The rest of us will take this guy!"

As Speedwing leapt towards them, the Rangers scattered, surrounding him as he started swinging at them.

"He's slower without his star!" Brody pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's like the difference between a Lamborghini and an Audi." Calvin stated, struggling to keep Speedwing from slicing him apart.

"I'm still more than fast enough to take all of you out!" Speedwing cackled.

Over by the car, Sarah offered the Green Ranger a hand.

"Here, I'll help you up." She said. The Green Ranger took her hand as Sarah pulled her to her feet. "How are you? Are you alright?"

The Green Ranger just stared at her.

"Well, you haven't de-morphed so that's a good sign, the powers seem to be holding up." She told her. "Alright, here's what we'll do. You head out left, I'll go right. We'll catch him…"

The Green Ranger ran straight for Speedwing trying to take him on. Sarah just threw up her hands.

"Or we could do THAT!" She complained. She watched on for a few moments as the Rangers struggled to keep pace with him. Without his Speed Star, they were faring a lot better, he certainly wasn't untouchable anymore.

The Speed Star! Sarah pulled it out and stared at it for a moment, considering her options. Her preliminary tests indicated that it SHOULD work with their tech, but she still wasn't sure how safe it would be. As she saw Preston getting knocked down, she made her choice, clipping the Speed Star in place.

"Guys, stand clear!" She called out. She spun the Speed Star in her sword and started to run. The effects worked quickly and she certainly felt the boost in speed. In fact, she was barely able to see as she blurred towards them. The Rangers all stood clear as she was running towards them. She hit Speedwing with her sword, but almost as soon as she had, she found herself slamming into a wall. She shook her head clear.

"What the hell was that?" Brody asked.

"Sarah, was that…was that you?" Calvin asked.

"HEY! That's MY Speed Star!" Speedwing complained.

"It's a little…um…" Sarah responded. "It's a little harder to get the hang of than I expected!"

"Sarah, you're using monster tech!" Hayley reminded her.

"And it's working! After a fashion!" She responded. "Alright guys, stand clear I'm coming through!"

She ran again, slicing through Speedwing, before hitting a wall, then a van, before coming back at him. She hit Speedwing again and again, but to say that her attacks were controlled would be grossly inaccurate. She was more like a human pinball than any kind of controlled projectile.

"Sarah, this is not a good idea!" Preston said as he pulled back.

"It's fine…It's working…sort of!" She screamed. "Guys, I'm coming back around, stay clear!"

She came screaming towards Speedwing, starting to glow as she powered up from the unfamiliar Power Star, aiming to end the battle. She was still hardly able to see. She was quickly becoming aware that the Speed Star did only that, it increased the speed of the user, but not necessarily their own perceptual or reaction speed. It seemed that Speedwing's own speed was necessary just to stop the Speed Star making him into an uncontrollable living bullet. As she was coming towards him though, she noticed something green coming into her path. She tried to veer to the side as she realised the Green Ranger was coming in to attack, causing her to trip. The momentum caused her to skid along the ground all the way into a wall a little way off. The Speed Star flew out of her sword, onto the ground away from Sarah.

Hayley saw that Speedwing had seen this and was going to collect it.

"I'm on it!" She called out, sprinting towards it. However, the Green Ranger was also going for it. The two of them slammed into each other, at which Hayley tumbled over. She saw Speedwing was already almost on it and kicked the Speed Star away.

"Cal, get that to Brody!" She yelled. Calvin snatched it up, but Speedwing was in the way. He looked around, seeing that the Green Ranger was getting up and was clear.

"Green! Here, catch!" He screamed, throwing it towards her. The Green Ranger saw the Speed Star coming and gripping her sword like a baseball bat smacked it away. They all watched as it streaked towards Brody, imbedding itself in his helmet.

"Brody?" Calvin asked. "Uh…Brody are you alright?"

"Guys…something is happening!" Brody said as his legs started to move rapidly.

"Brody, just stop and…"

"I…I can't!" He called out. "EVERYONE OUT OF THE WAY!"

With that, he sprinted through them all, knocking all of them out of the way as they were blasted back by a huge gust of air.

They all turned and stared at the Green Ranger.

"We told you to catch it!" Calvin yelled at her, flailing his arms. The Green Ranger appeared to hold a fist over her heart in response. Hayley was the next one to interject.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Hayley yelled at her, waving her arms around angrily, before turning back to the battle. The Green Ranger just backed away sheepishly.

"Guys, you all take care of Speedwing. I'll try and catch up to Brody on my Zord." Preston gulped. "If I can!"

With that, Preston leapt onto the Dragon Zord, while the other four Rangers returned to the battle with Speedwing. Meanwhile, the Green Ranger just stood aside, hoping that if she didn't get involved any further she wouldn't make things any worse than she already had.


	7. Take The Foot Off The Gas

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Brody screamed as he sprinted through the streets of Summer Cove. The Speed Star did indeed do exactly as it appeared to, increasing the speed of the user exponentially though unlike many kinds of fiction he'd read, like those Flash comics that Calvin had lent him once, it didn't appear to affect the perceptual speed and reaction time of the user. It was kind of like passing a driving test then getting behind the wheel of a formula one car…only without the benefit of a metal cage around the driver for safety! It appeared as though Speedwing had simply trained himself through his own already impressive speed and reflexes to be able to control the vast speed boost just through training and experience. If it wasn't for the fact that the Speed Star was currently lodged in his helmet and apparently malfunctioning to the point due to damage inflicted in battle that right now, he couldn't actually stop, he figured he'd have been impressed.

His suit was doing its utmost to keep him safe. He tried to veer into areas that were clear, but turning was difficult and sometimes he would slam into something as he tried to turn. He continued screaming, his one fear being that at his current speed he could hurt or even kill someone if he hit a person, though right now he wasn't even sure anyone would hear him. Still, it was better than nothing.

Preston was flying overhead in his Dragon Zord. While Sarah's Zoom Zord was faster, the Dragon Zord's ability to fly allowed him to keep high and get a better view of the area ahead. It wasn't difficult to follow a red streak that was zooming through Summer Cove.

"Brody, can you hear me?" Preston called through his communicator.

"Barely!" Brody answered. Preston turned up the volume.

"How about now?" He asked.

"That's better!" Brody answered. "Where are you?"

"I'm right behind you Brody!" He called out. "Brody, what's going on?"

"I don't know! I think this stupid thing in my head is broken! I can't stop!" He complained.

"Alright, Brody, can you…um…can you pull it out?" Preston asked.

"Oh, gee, I wish I'd thought of that! Of COURSE, I've tried pulling it out! It's stuck in my helmet!" He screamed.

"Alright…uh…how about taking your helmet off?" Preston asked him.

"Really?" Brody asked. "Preston, if I suddenly stop at this speed do you think I want there to be nothing between my skull and the concrete?"

"Oh…right…yeah, bad idea." Preston stated. "Alright, what do you want me to do?"

"Just…guide me towards somewhere I'm not going to hit anyone!" Brody told him. "Maybe I can figure out what to do when I'm not worried, I'm going to kill someone! INCLUDING ME!"

"Alright, uh…take a left up here!" Preston told him.

"ONTO THE FREEWAY?" Brody yelled.

"The rush hour's over by now it'll be virtually deserted and you'll be able to see anything coming for miles." Preston reminded him. "Also, the Freeway runs all the way around the city…"

"A loop! Perfect!" Brody responded. "OK, here's the ramp, I'm going…."

"NO NOT THAT ONE!" Preston screamed. "YOU'RE RUNNING THE WRONG WAY!"

"Oh SHIT!" Brody screamed as he narrowly evaded an oncoming car. "Alright, first chance I get I'm crossing onto the right side!"

"Oh man, I really wish this was a video game." Preston stated. "At least then if you mess up you have multiple lives."

"HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?" Brody screamed as he evaded an eighteen-wheeler coming the opposite way.

Back at the site of the battle, the Rangers were fighting with Speedwing, trying to take care of him now that he no longer had his most powerful weapon. Even without it he was incredibly fast, but between the four of them they were trying as best as possible to hem him in. A large part of ninjutsu was trying to find ways to eliminate an enemies' strength. If their armies were numerous, forcing them into bottlenecks and ambushes cut down their numbers advantage. If the opponent was strong, keeping distance and exhausting them by evading their attacks until striking when they had sapped their own strength. For opponents who were fast, speed meant little if they didn't have room to move.

Speedwing ducked and dodged, but in the course of his evasion ended up under an overpass. The Rangers started to surround him.

"Alright guys, we've got him surrounded!" Sarah called out. "Let's take him down!"

They came in, taking turns to attack him but even with limited room he was able to duck oncoming attacks and parry many of them.

"You Rangers move like molasses!" He taunted them. "You're like snails stuck in glue! You're like Government officials trying to make a decision. You're like…"

"Alright, Alright, we get it!" Levi responded. "You know what is faster than you though? LASERS!"

He activated his Rockstorm blaster, but his shots went wide. Although the lasers themselves were fast, Speedwing was still able to see where he was aiming. Sarah, Calvin and Hayley all joined in, but in a spectacular display of gymnastics, he twisted and flipped his way around their blasts.

"Keep it up!" Hayley yelled. "Surely, he has to tire some time, right?"

"Hah, please, I could do this all day!" Speedwing replied. "I could…GAAAKKKKK!"

"Hold your fire!" Sarah screamed as the Green Ranger leapt onto his back from a hiding place just above him. She latched onto his back, as he tried to throw her off.

"Hey, whoever you are you need to get out of the shot!" Calvin yelled at her. The Green Ranger continued to ride Speedwing as he ran backwards into a wall trying to dislodge her. She held on for dear life.

"Hey! Greenie! Get the hell out of the way!" Hayley yelled at her. "GET THE HELL OUT OF THE SHOT!"

"Guys…check it out!" Sarah said as she saw the Green Ranger wrapping her Ninja Star Blade around his throat, pulling the flat of the blade in, choking him. She hit him behind the knees, forcing him down, before dragging him, turning him in towards the others. She pulled him up in front of her, ducking down as much as she could. "Guys, I think she's trying to hold him so we can take the shot!"

"But we might hit her!" Levi stated.

"I think she's factored that in!" Sarah told them as the Green Ranger struggled to hold him. "I'd probably do the same!"

"You know what? I think any of us would too!" Calvin replied. They all opened fire, hitting Speedwing numerous times. The Green Ranger avoided the worst of it, shielding herself behind him. She finally dropped him under the relentless assault, at which the Rangers pulled out their Element Stars.

"Alright guys, before he has a chance to recover!" Sarah responded. Speedwing though leapt upwards, smashing through the overpass in a desperate escape, raining concrete down on the others.

"Anyone ever wish the bad guys would just give up?" Calvin asked.

"Preston, Speedwing's flown the coop." Hayley called over the communicator. "How are you doing with Brody?"

"Uh…not good!" Preston told them. "He's at least on the right side of the freeway now."

"Wait, did you say the freeway?" Levi asked as the Rangers leapt up onto the freeway. "Where on the freeway?"

"We're just about to pass that re-election billboard for the mayor." Preston told him.

"Right, they're close and I have a plan!" Levi said as the Rangers all surrounded Speedwing.

Over in Blue Bay Harbour, Tori was in her quarters, in truth more of an office where she kept her training notes since she lived off-campus these days, preparing herself for classes for the day ahead. She heard a knock on the door and turned to see Shane standing in the doorway.

"Well, you're a lot more formal than normal." She said with a little smile. "Normally you just come in."

"Well, you do still hit harder than I do." He reminded her. "Just getting ready for class?"

"I have a few areas to work on." She told him. "I've got some new initiates preparing for their first water running lesson, and trust me there is nothing more embarrassing for a Water Style Sensei than having a student almost drown."

"At least your students have a soft landing in water." Shane reminded her with a chuckle. "You remember it's only a couple of weeks since one of mine ended up with two broken legs."

"Oh, I remember! I heard the screaming all the way from the other side of the campus." She told him. "So, what can I do for you Shane?"

"I just thought you might like to know that Dane's leaving." Shane informed her.

"Are you surprised?" She answered. "I mean, he did only come to find out where Mariko went."

"Yeah, and it's not like anyone told him is it?" Shane asked her.

"No…right." She said, beginning to look around her notes. "But sometimes people know when something is a lost cause. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to…"

"Tori, we both know that's not all there is to say." Shane interrupted her.

"You think I went against you guys and…"

"Tori, for one thing you're reading your gas bill." Shane pointed out. "And for another, for a ninja you never have been a great liar."

Tori just threw her gas bill aside. She did most of her paperwork up here. It was quiet enough that when she wasn't training, she wouldn't be interrupted by her kids when she was trying to arrange the family finances. Shane had seen right through her.

"Damn it, I hate the way you do that." She muttered.

"Tori, we voted!" Shane sighed as he sat down. Tori just leaned on her desk. "If Mariko wanted anyone finding her…"

"Shane, I couldn't just do nothing." Tori protested.

"Tori, you heard what he did…"

"Yes, and I agree it was one of the most messed up things I've ever heard! And if you remember rightly, I was there when Lothor had that TV show." She said with a shudder. "I can't believe until we broke that up the network was about to pick it up."

"Tori, can you imagine how Mariko must have been feeling when she left?" He asked her.

"I'm not saying Dane did the right thing, but do you know who never asked for any of this?" She asked him. "The kid!"

She took a deep breath.

"Look, I'm never going to say Dane did the right thing. We can all agree he didn't, but there's a kid out there who's never met their dad." Tori reminded him.

"And if Mariko wanted the kid to meet him…"

"Shane, by now the kid will be a teenager." Tori pointed out. "Don't you think they should get a say in if they want to know who their dad is?"

Shane was about to say something, but stopped himself before he did. Tori came over, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Your kids are great, and you were there for them." Tori told him. "Don't you think Dane's kid should get to decide if they want him to be there for them?"

"Damn, I hate when you do that." Shane said, repeating Tori's words.

"Look, I just told him she might have went to San Fran." Tori told him. "Hell, it was years since she'd been there by the time she left, I've no idea if she even went there, but it was all I could think of."

"Switch to the combined gas and electricity rate." Shane told her, gesturing to the gas bill as he headed for the door. "It's the best plan."

As he left, Tori just picked up the bill, before dialling her cell phone.

"Hello, Blue Bay Utilities?" She asked, before rolling her eyes and pressing another button. "Damned recorded messages."

"Hold him in place. Element Star! Tornado Attack!"

"Right back at you!" Speedwing responded as he caught the attack, rebounding it towards the Rangers.

"That's some plan Levi!" Hayley groaned, pulling herself up. "Really, well done!"

"Trust me." Levi said as he gestured Hayley and Sarah around one way, while he gestured to the Green Ranger and Calvin to go the other. He stood directly in front of him. "So, looks like you've got an answer for everything haven't you?"

"When you're as fast as me, no one can touch you!" He replied, backing up as he kept shifting his focus from one Ranger to the other. Levi continued to direct the team. "You might have had a chance down there, but up here? I've got all the room to move I need!"

"Yeah, even into the overtaking lane." Levi told him.

"Exactly!" Speedwing stated. "Anywhere I want!"

"Including the overtaking lane." Levi repeated.

"I think we already established that." Speedwing stated.

"Overtaking lane?" Brody's voice asked. Levi just smiled.

"You got it bro!" He replied. Speedwing was sent flying as a red streak slammed into him, sending him flying. Brody tumbled to a stop a little way from them.

"Brody, are you alright?" Sarah asked as she came to him.

"I am now that I can stop running!" He answered. "Hey, I stopped running! The Speed Star's gone!"

"And I think I know where it's gone!" Preston said as he leapt down from his Dragon Zord, landing on the ground. He pointed to where they watched Speedwing disappearing into the distance.

"Oh great, now he has it back!" Hayley complained.

"But now he can't control it." Sarah said with a smirk. "And who wants to bet it won't be too long before we're seeing him again?"

"Alright, let's get this ready!" Preston said as he clipped an element star into his Ninja Star Blade. Brody powered up into his Lion Fire Armour. "And right on cue, here he comes!"

They all powered up their Ninja Swords, each of them swinging and slicing into Speedwing as he rushed past in an uncontrollable rush. He could only watch on helplessly as Brody's blade burst into flames and he brought it down.

"FINAL STRIKE!" He called out as the blade struck home. Speedwing exploded in a massive fireball. The Rangers all breathed a sigh of relief and fell to their knees as they realised, he was gone.

"Well, Speedwing's gone, and so is the Speed Star." Sarah commented. "I for once couldn't be happier to see the back of both of them."

"I don't think you're going to get any argument from any of us." Brody agreed. None of the other Rangers were quick to argue.

Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo was still in the executive lounge with the other Galactic Ninjas. His cigar dropped from his mouth as they watched Speedwing exploding. He turned slowly to the others as they all sat silently.

"They…they…they destroyed Speedwing!" Venoma screamed. "How is this possible?"

"Well, it is the nature of the show." Cosmo stammered. "I mean, sometimes things go badly and…"

"This will NOT stand!" Wolvermean stated. "No one will sully the name of…"

"THE GALACTIC NINJAS!" They all called out as the three remaining ninjas came together and posed. An explosion ripped through the executive lounge behind them, destroying the kudabots who were still cleaning up from the last explosion they caused. Cosmo just held up his hands.

"Well, there's…there's no need to panic, just look at the audience response! They loved the match!" Cosmo told them.

"What does that matter?" Rygore asked him. "Not when the reputation of the…"

"NO!" Cosmo called out. "Uh…please, I understand…I promise I'll be right back. This isn't over, not yet!"

He ran down to the stage where Wrench was playing replays of the final moments of the battle again and again. Cosmo quickly straightened himself out and got onto the stage.

"Well, who would have thought it? Speedwing really took the Rangers to the limit…the SPEED limit!" He announced. "Now, as you know you get to decide, do you want to see more of Speedwing?"

The audience cheered and stomped their feet, at which the scale started to rise. It was absolutely no surprise when the scale hit the top.

"It looks like Speedwing's going to get a speedy encore!" He announced. "GIGANTIFY!"

Down on the ground, the Rangers were hanging back, having come to expect that destroying a monster once was rarely the end of the battle. Cosmo's show was, if nothing else, very formulaic and if the monster didn't get reanimated then the least, they could expect was a Skullgator or two. Preston started looking around.

"Hey guys, did anyone see where the Green Ranger went?" He asked. They all looked around and noticed that she was gone.

"Well, she's definitely got that ninja trick down!" Brody stated. "I was hoping we could at least get to talk to her."

"Well, we might have…um…" Calvin started to say. "Let's just say when the battle didn't go particularly smoothly that we might have…uh…not been that welcoming."

"But she did help us with Speedwing." Sarah reminded them. "If she hadn't held him, we'd never have been able to hit him."

"Yeah, and sitting there while we fired towards her? That took some guts!" Preston agreed.

Just then, the beam hit the ground where Speedwing had fallen and the Rangers watched as he started to grow. Brody started to back up a little.

"Alright, we'll handle this the way we usually do, one problem at a time." He told them. "Right now, we have a really big bird to cook!"

Dane was just heading through to the waterfall, preparing for the next step of his journey. He didn't expect to find much help at the Academy, especially once he'd explained what had happened. Even a vague reference to San Francisco was more than he'd expected once they knew about the sordid details of his family life, and while he knew that it was a long shot since he couldn't even confirm if she had any real connection to the city beyond a tenuous link from when she was a kid, it was all he had. He knew there was a possibility she never even went there. Like him she'd spent most of her life at the Academy and so beyond that there really wasn't anywhere she would necessarily call home. Just like him it was possible she had disappeared into the ether, far off the grid. Frankly, given how he had treated her, he wouldn't blame her if she did.

"Dane, hold up." Shane called out as he stepped through the waterfall. Dane just dropped his bag on the ground.

"Shane, I really have to go." Dane told him. "It's a long way…"

"Yeah, it's a long way to San Fran." Shane interrupted him. Dane put his hands on his hips.

"Tori told you." He surmised. Shane just nodded.

"It wasn't too hard to get out of her." Shane responded.

"If you're here to try and stop me…"

"No, I know that would do no good. What am I going to do? Tie you up?" Shane asked him. He pulled out a few documents. "Look, I can't say I in any way understand what went down between you and your wife and Mariko. That was all just…well…some of the most fucked up shit I've ever heard in my life."

"That's one way of putting it." Dane replied sadly.

"But I think of my two girls, and I wonder what would have happened if I'd never got the chance to meet them." Shane told him. "The thing is, while it's not necessarily what I might think, the way I see it is, it shouldn't be up to me. It should be up to the kid whether or not they want to meet you."

He handed him some documents.

"Tori didn't know this…hell, I only know because my brother helped with the listing but…when she left, The Academy made sure she had somewhere to stay. We arranged for an apartment for her just off Castro. We covered the first couple of months. I've got no idea if she's still there, but…I figured at least I could confirm she was there."

"There's also a plane ticket here." Dane answered. "First class."

"Well, I do go and see my family out East a lot, and I had some frequent flyer miles that were about to expire and…"

He smiled.

"Tori can be pretty convincing." He responded.

"Thank you, Shane." Dane replied. "This place is lucky to have had you."

"Well, you did do a lot to make…"

"I can't possibly take credit for that." Dane told him, pointing to his biceps. "I might have helped you build that."

He then pointed to Shane's forehead.

"I might even have given you some of what's in there." He continued, before pointing to his chest. "But the important thing, what's in there…that's all you. I might be the 'Legendary Master Romero' for whatever that's worth, but you're a better sensei than I could ever be. The Academy, these students, your family. They're all really lucky to have you."

"I did my best." Shane answered.

"That's all anyone can do." Dane responded, before standing to attention and bowing respectfully. "Goodbye Sensei Clarke."

With that, he picked up his bag and turned to head on the long road back to the city, heading for the airport with a renewed sense of hope. The Academy had been the site of some of the worst of everything he had ever done, but seeing the man that had taken over from him in his absence, and thinking that if he had any part at all in making him that man, perhaps he had done one thing right here after all.

**A/N: **I did a slight re-working of this chapter in the wake of the sad news that broke today. Like the rest of the Ranger Nation, I am deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Pua Magasavia. Shane Clarke was a great Ranger and Pua was a fantastic addition to the series we all love so much. My thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time, and I just wanted to take a moment to say Goodbye in my own way.

Rest in peace Pua. You will be sorely missed.


	8. Speedwing's Fall

Up on the Warrior Dome ship, the show had concluded and Cosmo was in the Executive Lounge with Badonna, Odious, Wrench and the remaining three Galactic Ninjas. It wasn't as though Cosmo wasn't used to addressing factions and followers after the demise of one of their own. In a game show which was literally centred around battles to the death it was inevitable that someone would be unhappy with the result, but having hired warriors with some of the most fearsome reputations in the known universe, a rather more positive result was expected.

"We're sorry for your loss." Cosmo told Wolvermean as his comrades looked on.

"It is the life we have chosen." Wolvermean stated solemnly. "Everyone knows that such battles don't always go well. Even for..."

"The Galactic Ninjas." They chorused, all posing. Cosmo was just glad that in their more morose moment there were no more explosions. Venoma was the next one to speak.

"Was there any sign of his Ninja Medallion?" Rygore asked. Wrench just shook his head.

"We had the area searched. There was no sign of it." He told them. "We've done sweeps looking for its power but...there is no sign of it."

"Perhaps the Rangers took it." Badonna suggested. "Or maybe it was destroyed when Speedwing...well...you know."

"Those medallions are some of our most powerful artefacts. Handed down as new members are recruited for generations." Wolvermean explained, removing his from his armour. "I took this from the armour of my master while his blood still ran warm from his fresh corpse as I accepted the weighty responsibility of taking on the leadership of our clan."

"Uh...weren't YOU the one that was hired to...?"

"That's not the point Rygore!" Wolvermean cut him off. "The loss of the medallion makes this an even greater tragedy. You can rest assured that we will not rest until Speedwing is avenged and his medallion's fate revealed. You have my word as the leader of..."

"THE GALACTIC NINJAS!" They all chorused with another pose. Odious just blinked her one remaining eye, looking on them with disbelief.

"Yes...well...you of course have all the resources of our ship at your disposal." Odious assured them.

"And if you need any suggestions for replacements for Speedwing, we may be able to help!" Badonna chimed in, pulling out a poster and looking at it in a sickeningly lovesick way. "This warrior Brax has everything you could ever wish for in a Galactic Ninja. He's strong...handsome...fast...muscular..."

"We are still too consumed by the need for revenge to consider replacing Speedwing just yet." Venoma spat.

"Besides, we must devise our strategy going forward." Rygore told her. "We must take some time to decide which of us will avenge Speedwing in our time-honoured way."

The three of them faced each other, then pumping their fists, all began the process of playing rock, paper scissors to decide which of them would be next. All three of them chose scissors. They prepared for a second round and all came up with scissors again. Cosmo just sighed.

"We'll...leave you to prepare." He said, realising that once again this would take quite some time. "Come Wrench, we'll run some more scans to see if we can find that medallion. Perhaps the Rangers have some cloaking technology we don't know about."

"Of course, Cosmo." Wrench replied, going with him. Badonna and Odious left the room, heading the other way towards her throne room.

"It's a shame about Speedwing." Badonna commented. "He was powerful. I honestly thought he had the Rangers until that Green one showed up."

"Yes, I sometimes wonder when they'll run out of colours." Odious muttered. "What's next, a BROWN Ranger?"

"Actually...I think that's the only colour there's never been." Badonna responded.

"Whatever!" She responded. "If this new girl stands with the Rangers, she'll be destroyed just like them!"

"And now the Galactic Ninjas have a personal stake in this, you know they'll be out for blood!" Badonna responded. Odious just smiled.

"Yes, and if they manage it then good enough." She responded, before pulling the missing Ninja Medallion out of her robes. "Of course, if they lose, it just advances my own plan."

Down on Earth, Calvin opened the door gently, looking around as they tried to sneak back into the school. The unfortunate thing about Speedwing's attack was that he had attacked in the morning and they were kept a lot longer than they had hoped which meant by now they were all late.

For Levi, it wasn't such a problem since his first class wasn't until a little before lunchtime, but for the other members of the team, the ones that were students, by now people had to have noticed that they were missing.

"Alright, the coast is clear!" Calvin whispered to the others as he opened the door and they crept in. "Man, that was one wild fight."

"Yeah, if that's the first one they're willing to send against us then who knows how tough the rest of these Galactic Ninjas are." Preston agreed.

"Not to mention we still don't even know how many of them there are." Sarah commented. "Hell, we've just picked up another Ranger...we don't even know how many of US there are, never mind the bad guys!"

"Guys, I think it may be a little premature to call the Green Ranger one of us." Brody remarked.

"Brody..."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I know that she got her powers from the Nexus Prism and that says a lot about what the Prism thinks about her." Brody said, conceding a little that perhaps he had been quick to judge. "But the fact is that she still doesn't seem to have the skills we do. You wouldn't let just anyone pick up a gun and join the army, would you?"

"Well, she definitely has guts to spare. She did hold Speedwing so we could get a shot in." Preston told him.

"But she's not trained..."

"And it's not like all of us had mad skills when we started out either remember?" Preston asked him. "I quite literally needed Sarah to show me how to make a fist in our first fight."

"He's got a point; he did kind of suck." Sarah answered.

"HEY!" Preston protested.

"Well...it's not like any of us were great! I count myself in that category too!" She said sheepishly. "I mean seriously, the closest I came to being a ninja was playing Shinobi."

"The point is, we can teach skills. We really can't teach guts." Preston stated. "If this is up for a vote and we find her, I for one say we give her a shot."

"Preston, you show me a person with guts but no training and I'll show you someone that's going to be swallowing their own teeth if another of these Galactic Ninjas shows up." Brody told him.

"Oh, you're just sore that she managed to bypass all your traps." Hayley chuckled.

"Yeah, I mean how did she even do that?" Levi asked. "I swear, even if she isn't exactly a Martial Arts Master, someone is teaching her something."

"You know, when you're sneaking back into school after playing hooky, it's considered a good idea not to talk so loudly!" Clint, the security guard said as he appeared. Calvin leaned into Hayley.

"The way he keeps popping up, maybe he could give us some lessons." He whispered. Hayley had to suppress a chuckle and shoosh him as she tried to remain composed. He pulled out his citation book.

"Come on Clint, it's not that big a deal." Preston said. "We're just...a little late."

"You've missed the entire morning." Clint stated.

"OK, so we're a LOT late." Preston told him.

"OR...we're early for recess." Calvin said. The others just stared at him, while trying not to laugh. "Oh, come on, how much more trouble can we get in?"

"Let's see, you're all over an hour late, you came in through an unapproved entrance, you didn't report to the office for a tardy slip..." Clint said, starting to list off citations.

"Uh...Clint, Hi...I'm here?" Levi pointed out. "They're with me!"

"Mr Weston. As a teacher I'd expect you to set a better example." Clint replied. "So, I assume you have the appropriate paperwork for their unscheduled absence?"

"Uh..."

"And can I ask why you had these children out of class?" Clint asked him.

"Well, uh...about that, uh..." Levi started to stammer, trying to think of a suitable explanation. "The thing is..."

"Oh, good, you're back Mr Weston!" Principal Hastings called out as she arrived. "I take it you've bought those supplies for the camping trip?"

"The...uh...THE CAMPING TRIP! YES!" Levi said, realising she was giving him an out. The Rangers had never intended for Principal Hastings to find out about them, but it was pretty hard to keep her out of the loop considering the fact that Odious had kidnapped her and kept her prisoner in her own basement for several weeks while she impersonated her to keep close to the Rangers. It did also, like now, have some advantages to have someone that knew what they faced. "The camping trip...this weekend!"

"That's right." She told him, before turning to Clint. "I'm sorry, I sent Mr Weston and these students to get some supplies for the school camping trip this weekend. I must have forgot to give you the notification."

"Well, can you get it to me this afternoon? I'm going to need to write this up." Clint said, holding up some tickets. "I've already started writing these out, they've got serial numbers you know, once they're in the system..."

"Yes, yes I know Clint, and we all appreciate the fine job you do keeping us safe." Principal Hastings said, taking the tickets from him. "I promise I'll have these back to you this afternoon."

As Clint left, Calvin just let out a whistle.

"Thanks for saving us from Robocop." Calvin responded.

"Clint means well." She sighed, putting the tickets away. "Alright, all of you get to class. Oh, and Mr Weston...I'll expect plenty of marshmallows and hot dogs at the camp."

As she left, the Rangers just breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"That was WAY too close!" Hayley commented. "My folks have enough on their plate right now. They'd freak if I got a suspension!"

"Hey, you weren't the one that just got volunteered into feeding two dozen teenagers!" Levi reminded them with a laugh as he headed for his own classroom. "I'll catch up with you guys in the workshop at recess alright?"

"Sure thing Levi." Brody answered as the Rangers went to their own class. They could always get together and decompress their thoughts on what happened later, but right now, they had to contend with catching up with Dr Edwin's chemistry class.


	9. Sarah's Conundrum

By the time morning recess came around, the Rangers were all exhausted and more than ready for the break. Although they had missed all but the last half hour of the final class before recess, which was then taken up by them receiving a personal lecture and anecdote from Dr Edwin about how tardiness was something that was never acceptable despite them insisting they had permission to be out of class, they had been embroiled in battle with Speedwing, the first of a group they now knew to be called the Galactic Ninjas.

As they left the class, heading out to the lawn outside to enjoy some of the sun while they rested up, Brody decided to speak up.

"Man, does it feel good to be out of that class." He grumbled as he flopped down onto the grass.

"Well at least Principal Hastings gave us that cover story." Hayley remarked as she and Calvin sat with each other. She leant her head on his shoulder, only for Calvin to fall backwards and start snoring loudly. She just laughed and looked to the others. "Don't worry, he just likes a little power-nap every now and again. He'll be up in time for the bell…or if anyone mentions food."

"Food." Calvin mumbled, though his eyes never opened. She just sighed.

"Wow, it must be bad." She responded. She looked to the others. "So, that's one Galactic Ninja down, but…without knowing how many more there are it's a little hard to get excited."

"Yeah, for all we know there could be a couple of hundred of them." Preston sighed. "I mean, I know ninjas tend to operate alone or in small groups but clans were a thing. According to Shane at any time there can be as many as three hundred students at the Wind Ninja Academy…almost the same again at the Thunder Ninja Academy."

"That's a lot of ninjas." Sarah responded. "I don't know about you, but I'm wiped out from fighting ONE of those guys. The prospect of facing a couple of hundred more either just as powerful as him or perhaps even more powerful? That doesn't exactly make me all warm and tingly inside."

"Not to mention it's a little scary to think they have technology similar to ours." Hayley added. "That Speed Star…where did it even come from?"

"I've got my theories, but…without questioning one of them I really couldn't confirm where he got it." Sarah replied. "And while Speedwing was talkative…REALLY talkative for a ninja…unfortunately he was too busy kicking our butts for us to get a chance to question him."

"Still, at least the Speed Star is destroyed, so that's one star they're not using again." Brody stated. They all saw Sarah shifting a little uncomfortably. "It…was destroyed right?"

"Well…the thing about that is…"

"SARAH!" They all yelled, causing Calvin to jump up with a start, looking completely stunned.

"Well, the thing about that is…"

"What the hell Sarah?" Hayley yelled. "I mean, you're meant to be the smart one!"

"I just thought, that it was a really powerful weapon and if I could figure out how to get it working again…"

"Sarah, a nuke is a really powerful weapon too." Preston said to her. "That doesn't mean to say I'm going to go ahead and use one if I have no idea how it works or how to use it properly."

"Sarah, this isn't like you." Hayley said to her. "You kept the Speed Star from us before and now you only kept it from us because we didn't ask you about it?"

"Hayley, it's just, you know me and gadgets…"

"To be honest your head's been all over the place all week." Preston pointed out. "I don't mean to go there, but I probably know you better than anyone else here."

"Preston, we were together for a couple of months." Sarah sighed. "In that time, we only even dated twice."

"Yeah, well…I still like to think I know you pretty well." Preston answered. "I know what you can be like when you're distracted. Is everything alright?"

Sarah didn't answer at first. She still had Ray's offer on her mind. She had an appointment to meet him for lunch to discuss his offer. He had agreed to have a contract with him for her to look at. It wasn't as if she didn't think they had kind of a point, hell, she was so distracted she'd found wisdom in advice from Victor of all people!

"I…guess I've had a little on my mind lately." Sarah told them. "Um…alright, actually there's something that's been on my mind…"

Just then, Hayley's cell phone went off. She looked at it, and then to Sarah regretfully.

"Sorry, it's my mom." She told her. "I just like her to check in with me because…well…you know…Trevor and…I'll pick this up with you at lunch time, I promise alright?"

She got up and ran off, while Calvin followed her. She looked to Preston and Brody.

"You remember how the other day a guy called me into Principal Hastings' office?" She asked. "Well, the thing is, he…"

"Hey, there's Sandy!" Preston called out. "She looked like she was having problems with that experiment. Um…you…you don't mind if we pick this up later do you Sarah?"

"No." She sighed as Preston leapt up excitedly.

"You're the best!" Preston responded as he hugged her, before running off. She then looked to Brody.

"So…how about we go destroy that Speed Star before it causes any more problems?" Brody asked her.

"Sure, I guess we could do that." She muttered as they got up to go to the base.

As Preston crossed over the yard, heading towards Emma and Sandy, once again deep in some kind of conversation. He paused for a second to get his chemistry notebook out as he approached. He didn't have long in the class, but he did see that once again Sandy seemed to be having trouble with the experiment. She had admitted that chemistry never had been her best subject, but he had since found out the matter wasn't helped by the fact Dr Edwin's beard made it hard for her to see what he was saying. Dr Edwin didn't write much down on the board, and when he did it was mostly the same information as in the textbook, so if she found that hard to follow then the board didn't make it any easier. He understood that Sandy didn't like to make it common knowledge that she was deaf so that people didn't treat her differently but he did think that maybe it'd help if she explained the situation to Dr Edwin. He had promised not to tell anyone so it wasn't his place to do anything about it, but he figured since chemistry was one of his best subjects, he could help her in the meantime.

As he got closer, he overheard them and could see they were in the middle of an argument.

"Emma, I only even have this stupid thing because of you!" Sandy snapped at her sister. "I never asked for any of this! I just went along with your dumbass idea as usual…"

"Come on Sandy, it's not like anyone FORCED you to do this!" Emma pleaded with her.

"You locked me out of our bedroom until I agreed to go!" Sandy reminded her. "Now I'm stuck with…"

"How the hell was I meant to know that would happen?" Emma asked her. "I only sent you because…well…"

"Because you have the co-ordination of a crippled bull elephant?" Sandy asked.

"It's…not my fault that I'm a little clumsy." Emma responded. "Besides, I taught you…"

"You're not the one that has to…" Sandy started signing something frantically. "Oh, that's real mature! You know I can't read sign language as fast as you can sign and…OK, I didn't pick up a lot of it but…I'm telling mom you said that!"

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?" Preston asked as he arrived. Sandy and Emma immediately clammed up and looked to each other and then to Preston.

"Oh, we're just uh…" Sandy said trying to find something to say to him. "…you know how siblings are right? We fight over stupid stuff at times."

Emma hit Sandy in the arm, causing her to flinch.

"Um…actually I'm an only child." Preston said. "In fact, the only friend I have with a brother is Levi and uh…"

He had to remind himself that as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Levi was still Levi and that he and Brody weren't related. Revealing that information would only open up a whole lot of problems for them. It would be virtually impossible for them to reveal Levi's true identity without explaining everything else and that would expose the Rangers' identities. At the very least it would be impossible for them to keep their identities secret which would open them up to a whole world of problems as they all knew. "…uh…his brother Tom. Yeah, I guess I never thought about it."

"Well, some times having a sibling are better than others." Sandy said, glaring at Emma, before turning back to Preston. "So, what's happening?"

"I just…wondered if you'd like a few pointers on today's experiment." Preston offered.

"Actually, we were just going to…"

"I'd love that!" Sandy responded very enthusiastically before backing down a little. "Um…I mean…yeah, that would be good!"

"Sandy, we still have to talk about that thing…"

"Yeah, that can wait!" Sandy responded.

"But Sandy…" Emma started to say, before Sandy signed something to her. "You know signing it doesn't make it any less…I'm telling mom!"

"Yeah, good luck with that!" Sandy responded as she left with Preston. She linked her arm with Preston's as they left.

"Are you sure you don't want to see to that?" Preston asked her.

"You really don't know much about siblings, do you?" She asked him. "We'll pick this up later. When you share a room, you have plenty of time to go and cool off because you know you'll run into each other again eventually."

"Your arm's bruised…are you alright?" He asked her.

"Yeah, it's fine, it…happens all the time." She replied. "People bump into me all the time."

"They do?" Preston asked her.

"Yeah, it kind of sucks when you can't hear people warn you they're coming." She told him. "Trust me, if I'd been jogging round that pond and Steve had called out 'On the left', I'd probably have the honour of being face-planted by Captain America."

"You like Captain America?" Preston asked her.

"Are you kidding? I love all of that superhero stuff!" She told him.

"So…DC or Marvel?" He asked.

"Why does there have to be a divide?" She giggled. "I just love superheroes! There are great stories on both sides that a lot of people miss out on because of stupid tribalist nonsense!"

"That is…wow…we have got to talk more about this!" Preston replied as they got to an empty classroom. "Until then though, how about we figure out where your experiment went wrong?"

"Sounds good to me!" She replied, heading into the class.

In an airport, some way from Summer Cove, Dane put his bag down on the counter, collecting his boarding pass from the desk. As good as his word, Shane had already arranged for them to have a first-class ticket waiting for him. It wasn't as though he really needed the luxury, but since Shane had given him the most conclusive lead on where he could find Mariko, as well as the fact he had used all of his frequent flyer points he had racked up to get the ticket, he wasn't going to argue.

As he went through security without so much as a guard asking him to empty his pockets of metal objects, he made his way quickly to his departure lounge and took a seat.

He looked around as he waited on the boarding announcement, seeing the sheer variety of passengers starting to assemble. There were some people in business wear, working on a variety of laptops and other devices. For some of them, he imagined that travelling was one of the few times that they really got to relax outside the office, and yet they lived in a culture where they felt the need to be working at what was for many of them possibly the only real time they would get to relax.

There were a group of younger travellers, casually dressed, in small groups. Given the fact many of them were also drinking and checking out the duty free and the bars, it looked like they were leisure travellers, probably heading to San Francisco for its famed night life. Then his attention came to the families. People travelling with their children. Parents trying to keep their children entertained in what was possibly one of the dullest places imaginable.

Dane had always intended to be a good parent. He had never set out to be neglectful or inattentive. However, even though life had dealt him a number of harsh, difficult blows, he couldn't claim to be innocent for much of it. Sure, he had been sealed in the Nexus Prism for a decade and missed out on one son being taken as a slave by a bloodthirsty intergalactic game show host and the other going on the run for ten years, so afraid of being discovered he had literally created a whole other life for himself, but since the situation with Mariko pre-dated all of that, there was no way he could try to blame anyone but himself.

He had no idea if Mariko was still in San Francisco, or what had happened to her in the time since. The way all of his family's lives had turned out had made one thing abundantly clear, and that a lot could happen. In only ten years one of his sons had forged himself into a master ninja and the other was a world-famous country music star. The last time he'd seen Mariko was before he left the academy with his boys. As near as he could tell for Mariko to be at the stage of pregnancy that he didn't know about it before he left the academy, the child would be about sixteen years old by now. In all of that time, anything could have happened. They could be anywhere; anything could have happened. The only consolation in his mind was that he knew Mariko had the same training he did. Wherever they went after the academy, he was sure Mariko would have found a way to get by.

He still didn't know what he was going to say or do if he even did get to see them. There was no guarantee that they would want to see him. The child had been without a father for sixteen years. He wouldn't be able to blame them if they decided they had no interest in forming a relationship with him now. That said, he had to at least try to find them. If nothing else, it would allow him to be sure that they had managed to create a life without him. Hopefully a good life, one that he wasn't sure he could offer.

He looked up as he heard an announcement calling on the first-class passengers to board. He got up from his seat and approached the desk, showing it to the attendant.

"The staff will show you to your seat Mr Romero." She greeted him. "Welcome to your flight."

He didn't respond, just taking back his stub and making his way down the ramp, wondering what he would find.

Over at Summer Cove High, the rest of the morning went by with surprisingly little drama. Sarah gathered her things, still completely at a loss as to what she was meant to do. She hadn't had much of a chance to speak to the others regarding the offer. It took a lot longer than expected for her and Brody to destroy the Speed Star safely and so she hadn't had a chance to speak to him, and given the fact that everyone now knew they were well over an hour late in the morning, they weren't really in the position to push their luck and talk in class.

She would have loved to have heard from them some thoughts. Preston, while not really too interested in his dad's business dealings, had quite literally been around business his whole life. She had learned that Mr Tien often brought his work home and used it as an office, so he had picked up a few things about how business was done. The others, well…if nothing else she always found it useful to bounce ideas off others. It often helped to hear ideas said out loud and while it was possible to talk to herself, sometimes seeing the reactions she got from others would help her think again about some of her wilder ideas. Now, she was going to meet Ray, who no doubt would expect an answer from her within a few minutes.

"OK Brody, are you ready?" Emma said excitedly as she practically pounced on top of them the second, they left the classroom.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, for our next lesson!" She reminded him. "I was in my room all night practicing, see!"

She adopted the horse stance and started throwing some punches. The others watched her, gleefully performing an exercise that had probably only taken each of them a few minutes in one of their first lessons as though she had just learned how to do a triple somersault. Brody caught one of her hands.

"Yeah, that's great…you know, practice makes perfect right?" Brody said, framing it as positively as he could. "Alright, um…why don't you go and get changed and I'll be along shortly to take you through today's lesson?"

"I'll be right back!" She said, hugging him giddily before running off. Hayley just blinked.

"Well, she's certainly…enthusiastic." She commented.

"Yeah, you can't teach that alright." Brody replied. "I'll catch you guys later alright?"

"Oh, I have to meet Sandy in the library." Preston told them. "We've got a few things to go over."

"Sure thing Presto." Sarah answered as he left. Hayley and Calvin flanked her, walking out with her. "So, what's going on?"

"Huh?" Sarah asked.

"Earlier, you wanted to talk about something." Calvin reminded her. "And we appear to be walking outside…instead of to the canteen…on pizza day!"

"Oh, right, the thing about that is…" Sarah started to say, before they heard a loud horn. Everyone turned to see a limo pulled up to the curb. Sarah just sighed.

"Too late." She sighed. "Um…right, I…have to go. I'll catch you guys around."

With that, she headed for the limo, getting into the back. Calvin and Hayley just watched her go.

"That just happened right?" Calvin asked.

"What's Sarah doing getting into a limo?" Hayley asked. "Think we should…?"

"Hayls, it's pizza day!" Calvin complained. "Sarah's a big girl and…it's pizza day!"

"I…guess you're right." Hayley commented. "Come on, let's see if we can get there before the mushroom is all gone."


	10. Sarah's Business Lunch

In the back of Ray's limo, Sarah was starting to become restless. Ray was a nice enough person, and it wasn't as though she felt like she was in any real danger. Sure, it could be argued getting into the back of a stranger's car was a bad idea but since Ray had picked her up in a limo she was perfectly certain that plenty of people in the school would have noticed. Even in a school which had the heir to the Tien Empire as a student and more than a couple of students from the kind of neighbourhoods where the house and apartment prices hit seven to eight figures and included annual charges for a private security detail it wasn't as though limousines were a common sight. When Phillipe had picked up Sarah and her friends the pictures circulated Social Media for days. Not even factoring in the fact she was a Ranger Ray would have to be pretty dense to try anything since it wouldn't be hard to track down the fact he was the last person seen with Sarah. Adding in the fact she was a Ranger, between having her own morpher and the fact her friends, who were all also Rangers AND trained ninjas who would find it pretty simple to track her down, she felt more than confident she was safe.

Ray was not making any kind of suspicious moves either. If anything, he was being nothing but kind and welcoming. He had offered her virtually anything she could conceivably have wanted even on the short drive to the restaurant, but pulling into the valet station, Sarah was well aware this was not at all the kind of neighbourhood she was used to being in. Her dad, at the height of his investment career, had earned so much coming places like this was second nature to him, but he generally didn't bring his family along, most likely since he knew much of what he was doing was at very least skirting investment fraud laws if not outright breaking them. Ray guided her inside, where he spoke to the maitre d in Italian in a way that made it pretty clear they knew each other pretty well.

Sarah couldn't have felt more out of place if she had walked in wearing a burlap sack. The waiters were walking around in suits that had to cost the restaurant four figures, never mind the clientele. She started to shift a little uncomfortably, feeling self-conscious in her casual clothing that never usually gave her a second thought. Ray gestured to her.

"Come, this way." He told her, gesturing for her to follow him. Dario, the maitre d, opened a door that she didn't even notice before, one with some kind of Italian name rather than a room number. Ray hadn't just arranged a table, but a private dining room. Going inside, it was bright, and lined with reproductions of some of the greatest Renaissance masterpieces ever created. She recognised all four of the masters...well...she recognised them more as the Ninja Turtles though she was aware they were all painters and sculptors long before the days of Eastman and Laird. Dario moved out a chair for her, at which she sat down before he pushed it in. As Ray sat down, Dario started to go through the specials.

"Today we have a wonderful seafood medley starter, and a lightly spiced wild boar tomato pasta that is one of my personal favourites." He told them. "Can I bring you anything to drink?" Sarah raised her hand nervously, as though asking for permission to answer in school, only without her usual confidence.

"Um...my menu doesn't have prices." She pointed out. Ray just laughed.

"That's because you have a guest menu." Ray assured her. "Don't think about it at all, just order what you like."

"OK...uh...what sodas do you have?" She asked. Dario smiled.

"We have an extensive range." He told her.

"Grape?" She asked tentatively. He just nodded.

"Very good." He responded. "Shall I bring your usual?"

"That would be delightful." Ray told him. "Do you mind if I order?"

Since the menu was written completely in Italian, a language Sarah wasn't hugely familiar with, she only recognised the odd word here and there and that was mostly the pasta types. She had no more idea what was on the menu than the average person would have if they tried to read the technical schematics of a nuclear reactor. Sarah honestly thought she'd have a better chance with the nuclear reactor! She just nodded and bid him to order for her. Ray rattled off an order that sounded so effortless she was certain he had to request it a few times a week. Dario took the menus and headed out to get the drinks.

"Um...I only have an hour for lunch, so...can I see the contract now?" She asked. "I have to be back at school..."

"Oh, don't worry about it, just sit back and relax." Ray told her. "So, tell me a little more about how you came to build this wonderful hover board."

"Um...well...it's just something I put together in my garage..."

"Sarah, it's not as if it's a jewellery box or a spice rack, you didn't just throw this together." He cut her off, leaning across the table. "Tell me, what kind of creative process does a brilliant mind like yours have to go through to create something like this?"

Sarah started to fidget in her seat, trying to think of how best to answer. The central idea was just something she had always been interested in, ever since she had realised the limitations of wheeled transport by running her old roller blades into one too many curbs. But as for the rest of it...how did she explain the process of years of her life to a guy that looked like success was a lot more than just a process of seeing what didn't literally blow up in his face?

Over at the school, Preston was taking Sandy through another of the experiments. He'd managed to show her how she had gotten off-track with today's effort and was already working on giving her a head-start on the next assignment. As they were working, he was talking with her, laughing as he took her through some of his own stories of chemistry while he showed her what to do, making sure to make detailed notes.

"Wow, you really did that?" She asked him.

"I swear to God, they evacuated the whole building! My dad was super PISSED when he realised I was the one that had done it!" Preston chuckled. "A lot of people really don't realise how much science goes into magic tricks. Sure, there are a lot of pre-prepared flash powders and smoke generators and luminescent fluids and such, but most of the commercially available stuff will never be as good as making it yourself."

"Unless you set off the fire alarm." Sandy teased him.

"Unless you set off the fire alarm!" He laughed as he saw her looking at him.

"I'll bet Doctor Strange never had those kinds of problems." She mused. "Sure, the odd difficulty with inter-dimensional creatures and the ethics of manipulating reality and space-time but not smoke alarms."

"Benedict Cumberbatch...what's not to love am I right?" He asked her.

"He's definitely cool, but I was always more of a Carol Danvers girl." She admitted.

"CAPTAIN MARVEL?" He screamed. "I LOVED that movie!"

"How awesome was it?" She screeched. "Fight me! FIGHT ME! BOOM..."

"I HAVE NOTHING TO PROVE TO YOU!" They chorused, quoting her favourite scene in the movie. As they calmed down enough to get back to the experiment, Preston couldn't help watching her.

"OK, now this is the part you have to be careful with." He told her. "You need to add this just a little at a time, literally just drops at a time."

"Preston...would you mind introducing me to your friends?" She asked him. Preston just looked to her.

"You've met them, haven't you?" He asked her. She just shrugged.

"Only in passing." She admitted. "I kind of feel like I'm taking you away from them with all this time we spend together."

"Its fine, they understand..."

"Yeah, I'm sure they do but, I'd kind of like to be your friend rather than just the newbie you're puppy-walking around for a couple of weeks." She told him.

"Yeah, OK I can do that." Preston told her.

"Would they...um...would they be weird about it if I explained about...you know..." She gestured towards her ears, hidden beneath her hair. Preston just smiled and shook his head.

"Hey, if anything they'd probably just appreciate knowing to be careful so that you can understand them." Preston assured her. "I know Calvin has a habit of turning around about the group when he's talking."

"You...noticed that?" She asked him.

"I didn't before." Preston replied. Sandy just smiled a little, while he looked right at her, before realising he'd been staring a little uncomfortably long. He cleared his throat to try and sound casual. "Well, right...that looks like about the right amount, now take this and stir it gently."

He watched her stirring, beginning to laugh a little as she saw the chemicals changing just how the book said they were meant to.

"So, um...how about your sister?" He asked her. Sandy just looked curiously at him.

"What about her?" She asked.

"Well, you feel like you're taking me away from my friends...the last thing I want is to feel like we're doing the same with your sister." He told her. Sandy just chuckled.

"Oh, Sandy will be just fine. We share a room so it's not like I can avoid her." She assured him. "Besides, now she's doing those martial arts lessons with Brody she'll be as happy as a pig in muck...which given the state of that yard might not be that inaccurate a statement."

"Your sister really is enthusiastic about all that isn't she?" Preston asked.

"Put it this way, considering the fact she once managed to break her toe just sitting at her desk chair our parents decided a while back letting her take part in anything that actively encourages people to throw fists and feet her way was not going to end well."

"Oh, Brody's really good, she's in good hands." Preston assured her.

"Yeah, she was pretty excited about that." She assured him. "So...what did you think about Endgame?"

Back at the restaurant, Sarah had finished with her starter and was in the middle of her main course while Ray told her all about some of the many trips he'd taken to Italy and the things he loved about it there. Sarah couldn't help being a little fidgety, they'd been away from the school now almost half an hour and she still hadn't even seen the contract. She just laughed at the end of his anecdote to make it look like she was listening.

"Look, Mr Peralta..."

"Ray." He corrected her. "Trust me; I want us to be comfortable with each other Sarah."

"Ray, I'm really sorry to rush this, but...I really wanted to see the contract, just to get a chance to look over it." She told him. He slid an envelope over to her.

"Well, never let it be said I don't appreciate it when someone knows what they want." He told her. "There you go, everything's right there."

Sarah took the contract out of the envelope, and was astounded to find a much larger document than she was expecting. She knew that contracts could be involved, but had seen her dad also give out contracts that were only a single page, especially with some of the clients in his new business. She flipped through it.

"Twenty pages." She said, forcing a smile. "Printed on both sides!"

"Oh, you don't need to worry; the main event is on the last page." He told her. "It outlines your payment and asks for your account details. Just a quick signature and an initial and we can get the ball rolling."

"The...uh...the contract's kind of big to just say that." Sarah replied.

"It's all just boring legalese and dusty nonsense, the kind of language that just makes things far more complicated than they need to be and I'm certain the way my lawyers justify their salaries." He replied, waving it off, taking the contract and turning it to the last page. "Everything's marked where you have to sign."

"Um...Mr Peralta, would you mind if I took this with me?" She asked him. "I'd really like to let someone else look at it and..."

"Sarah, please, it's all nothing to worry about. It's just things that protect your rights as the creator and my rights as an investor. It's nothing that isn't signed a million times a day all over the world." He assured her, coming around the table and getting a little close to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Of course, if you'd like me to reconsider, I do have other projects that need my attention."

"Wait!" She said, checking the time again. "Um...are you sure it has to be done right now? I thought you said you were here until the end of the week."

"I am, but this isn't the only iron in the fire." He told her. "Sarah, if you sign this, you'll see smiles on children's faces all over town as they zip around on those things. You'll get to see your creation in stores in no time. Just imagine all those kids tearing open the wrapping paper on their brand new hover boards this Christmas! All it takes is a quick signature and it's all a reality!"

Sarah felt tense as he looked to her. He'd been nothing but nice and amiable, but between his proximity and the fact she was well aware she needed to head back to school soon, she couldn't help feeling pressure to get out of there. Ray was looking to her and smiling.

"Come on." He said, offering her a pen. "Make this the beginning of something great!"

"OK." Sarah gulped, taking the pen and taking a deep breath. "If you're sure..."

Just then, the door burst open and Victor barged in, shoving aside Dario, who seemed to be trying in vain to try and keep him out. Although only a High School student, Victor was a multi award-winning athlete, including football, where he had the school's rushing record.

"What's the meaning of this?" Ray yelled.

"Victor?" Sarah asked.

"You know this person?" Ray asked.

"I'm debating that right now." She replied. "Victor, what the hell?"

"Sir, if you don't leave I'm calling the police..."

"You go ahead and do that!" Victor replied. "This won't take long!"

Dario headed outside, leaving Victor with Sarah and Ray. Sarah just glared at him.

"Victor, what the hell are you doing here?" She asked him.

"Have you signed anything?" He asked her.

"What does that...?"

"Have you signed anything?" He asked again.

"No, not yet but..." Victor picked up the contract, taking it away. "Victor what are you doing?"

"Stopping you doing something you'll regret." He replied, pointing at Ray. "This guy's a complete crook!"

"You better be careful what you say." Ray told him. "Slander is a very serious matter."

"Victor, what are you doing? This is nothing to do with you!" Sarah answered.

"It is when one of my friends is being taken for a ride." He answered, pulling some papers out of his pocket. "I Googled this guy's name and I found no shortage of stories about him."

"Well, you don't get to where I am without some fans..."

"Yeah, not THOSE kind of stories." Victor told him, tossing the papers onto the table. "Those are all stories from creators who signed with this guys who ended up missing out on millions!"

"What?" Sarah asked him. "Victor, he's offering me..."

"Yeah, that's one of his favourite cons. He offers big money up front to get a signature on the dotted line." Victor told her. "But then he takes their ideas and makes a fortune while cutting them loose."

"Young man, you don't seem to understand how business works..."

"No, and a lot of the people in these stories didn't either, but they got a short, sharp lesson in intellectual property rights didn't they?" Victor answered.

"Intellectual...huh?" Sarah asked.

"Intellectual property. Basically the ownership of ideas." Victor answered. "He gets independent creators with good ideas, flashes the cash and makes them sign a contract. Only one of the clauses...and here it is."

He slapped down the contract after finding the appropriate paragraph. He pointed to it.

"Herein, the payment to the creator, Sarah Thompson, is for the full and exclusive rights to the intellectual property of the design and the concepts behind it." Victor read aloud. Sarah picked up the contract and read the section.

"I don't..."

"That's not a partnership deal; it's a one-off payment for your intellectual property rights." Victor explained. "After that, he'll own everything to do with the hover board. The designs, the concepts, the rights to build and distribute, everything. He could make millions while never having to give you another cent."

"Is this...is this true?" Sarah asked.

"You can't blame me for..."

"Oh, that's not the best part. Since he would now own the hover board, you'd have to get HIS permission to do anything with it." Victor spat accusingly. "Most of the creators he's signed weren't even allowed to touch their own work again after they signed with him. If you so much as started drawing sketches for a new one, he could sue you into bankruptcy."

"I wouldn't be able to work on my OWN IDEA?" Sarah screamed, before glaring at Ray. "WHAT THE HELL?"

"Yes, Sarah, I'd own the rights, but since I'm putting up the capitol I'd be the one taking the risk, don't you think I should get the bigger slice?" He asked her. "You've seen the offer; it's not exactly chicken feed..."

"I never for a second thought you should get anything but the biggest slice, I'm young and not exactly a business person but I'm not stupid!" She replied. "But saying this isn't my idea anymore? Not being allowed to work on it if you don't want me to? That's not something I'm on board with."

"Sarah..."

"Look, I don't know if you've ever created...well...anything, but let me tell you something." She picked up her hoverboard, showing it to him. "You look at this and you see sales, you see money. Do you know what I see? I see three and a half years of my LIFE! I see movies I didn't go to see with my friends, I see nights I worked in the garage until my mom physically dragged me away from the work bench and forced me to go to bed! I see more trips to the hospital than I care to admit. I see my dad's first garage going up in flames and me getting a lecture from the fire chief about how I nearly burned down the whole block! I see more of my allowance in parts and trial runs than I've spent on anything else in my entire life!"

"Sarah, think about this!" Ray told her.

"I know you've got the money, and I know that money was tempting, but saying that this isn't mine anymore? That is something I just can't do." She put down flatly.

"Sarah, you walk out of here that offer's gone for good." Ray warned her. "I know how much that money could mean to you, that's college paid for pretty much everywhere..."

"And don't think that wasn't a tempting offer. I might have to hope for a scholarship, I might have to work in some crappy job I hate to make ends meet and when I finally graduate, I might just spend years paying off debts. But I'll do it if I have to." She replied. "Sorry, this is more than just a board to me, and it's not for sale."

Just then, the door opened and Dario came in with Spike.

"Alright, I hear there's some trouble here and...oh, hey, Sarah, Victor. How are things?" He greeted them.

"I want this one out of here!" Dario barked, pointing at Victor. He just barged in here..."

"Alright, I'm going, I'm going!" Victor sighed. "You don't need to arrest me."

"We both are." Sarah replied, tearing up the contract and tossing the pieces into Ray's face. "We're done here."

With that, Spike escorted them both off the premises. When they got outside, he started scratching the back of his head.

"Um...alright, I suppose I should at least ask, what was all that about?" He asked her.

"It's...not worth explaining." Sarah responded. "I need to get back to school."

"We both do." Victor answered.

"Well, would you like a ride?" Spike asked.

"Sure." Sarah responded as Spike opened the back door of his patrol car. Victor got in with her at which Spike closed the door, before heading to the drivers' seat.

"Are you alright?" Victor asked her.

"I am...thanks to you." She responded. "How did you...?"

"His name just seemed familiar, so I did a quick Google search." Victor assured her. "When I saw you get into the limo I hailed a cab."

"You...you didn't have to do that." Sarah told him.

"Hey, it's not like you don't do a lot for other right?" He asked, referencing her Ranger duties, but being mindful of the fact Spike was in ear-shot, and so he didn't specify what he meant. "It's about time someone watched your back right?"

"God, I can't believe I was almost sucked in like that. If you'd been thirty seconds longer I'd have signed away everything." She sighed. "I feel like such an idiot."

"You're not the first person he's done this to. By the looks of the number of creators with stories like this, it seems like he built his business on it." He reassured her.

"But how does he keep getting away with it?" She asked him.

"Because he targets independent creators." Victor replied. "By the time most of them realise they've been conned he legally owns everything lock, stock and barrel and kicks them to the curb. Even if they do have a case most of them can't afford to go through the courts to get anything back anyway."

"I can't believe I nearly gave this thing up for good." She said, kissing her hover board and hugging it tightly. "Don't worry, you're not going anywhere! You'll always be mine."

She saw the way Victor was smiling at her and smiled back.

"Thanks Victor." She told him. "Seriously, for everything."

"You're welcome." He responded. "Any time."


	11. A Slice of Pie

On the Warrior Dome Ship, Cosmo was sitting in the corner of the Executive Lounge, ordering himself a drink from the bar. While his numbers had been really good from the Speedwing episode, the Galactic Ninjas were creating their own headaches. In his career, he was used to handling the eccentricities and outrageous demands of his talent. Some were simple enough, others were a little more of a balancing act. Having more than one raging psychopath on the ship that demanded the very best chambers, or that their name receive the top billing on the show and threatening everything from walking out to the complete obliteration of the ship if they didn't get their way, thing were a little more sensitive. However, the Galactic Ninjas and their eccentricities were causing him a whole new world of headaches.

"Martini, made with Xyberian vodka and three olives." Venoma grumbled as she sat down. "And a glass of ice please!"

The barman left the glass of ice, which she plunged her hand into, while he went to get her drink. Cosmo just sighed.

"Hard going?" He asked.

"Tendonitis is no laughing matter." She grumbled. "It really hurts!"

"I imagine it would after you've been playing the same game of Rock, Paper Scissors for three straight days." He muttered as he downed his drink. The barman refilled it, but he grabbed his hand. "Just leave the bottle."

"Well, at least its over for now." She declared. "I still can't believe I lost."

"You…wait…you lost?" Cosmo asked, his attention picking up. "You lost? Which means someone won? SOMEONE WON?"

"Yes, Rygore will face the Rangers next." She told him. "When he took a break he came up with a new strategy and now…now you get to watch him stomping around the Rangers' home city."

"By new strategy you mean picking rock when the three of you have been picking scissors all the rest of the time." Cosmo replied sarcastically. "Wait, break? What break? I thought this was your break!"

"We took a break before the last round. Even we Galactic Ninjas!" She struck a pose, knocking her drink from the barman's hand, where hit shattered against the wall. The barman just dutifully started mixing her another. "Require a break every now and then. Three days is a long time."

"You don't say." Cosmo answered wearily, having been waiting for them to make their choice for the last three days. "Alright, so Rygore, he's the one that's known for his strategy."

"Well, yes, Rygore is one of the strongest and most powerful monsters in the galaxy, but his mastery of strategy and surprise attacks leaves his enemies confounded, confused." She responded. "Often by the time they know what he's doing he's already destroyed them."

"That sounds absolutely perfect!" Cosmo cheerfully chirped as he started to become a lot more enthusiastic about the prospect. "With a strategic master like Rygore, the Rangers won't know what hit them!"

"I wouldn't be surprised, they'll never be able to guess what he's about to do." Venoma said as she received her drink and downed it in one go. "I mean, most of the time even he doesn't know what he's going to do."

As she left, Cosmo just furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Um…what?" Cosmo asked. "Would you mind running that one past me again?"

Mrs Finch headed into the Teacher's Lounge in an all-too-rare break between classes to take a break. While she was primarily the Maths teacher at Summer Cove High, the monster attacks had led to a rather chaotic and less than ideal staffing situation at the school. Between the number of teachers who opted for early retirement, transferred seeking a new start and those who didn't even try to come up with another explanation and simply said "Screw this I'm out of here!" before running for their lives the school had run at a shortage now ever since the first attacks. Needless to say it was difficult to get replacements, even the most idealistic young teachers fresh from college eager to throw themselves into the fire valued their lives enough to think twice before going to a Ranger city during an active war and so most of the school was being run between the few teachers who stayed and a few part-time teachers with other professions outside the school. She could hardly remember the last time she wasn't pulling double or triple duty so when the time came that she could avail herself of the staff room's coffee machine, she was only too happy to get to put her feet up.

The pot already had some coffee in it, but it looked fresh enough to not warrant making another. After pouring her cup, she headed to the fridge, looking for some milk. She had to do a double-take when she saw that the fridge was full of frankfurters, marshmallows, burgers and other assorted items that normally had no earthly business being there. Normally the fridge was the home to staff lunches. Sandwiches, pastas, salads, perhaps the odd sushi tray but never anything like this. That was all except for one time of year.

"There's still some milk in the salad crisper." Levi told her as he came in with a couple of bags. "Sorry, it was the only place there was room to put it."

"So, the annual camping trip." She commented. "I thought they were talking about cancelling it."

"There was talk of that, but considering everything a lot of people are of the view are the kids any safer in their homes than in the woods right now?" Levi responded. Mrs Finch just shrugged. To be fair, it was a fair point. Most of the monsters tore through buildings as easily as they did shrubbery so when it was weighed up, really there wasn't much point in denying the kids one of the more enjoyable school outings.

"That's a fair point." She stated. "I guess you drew the short straw then."

"Are you kidding, I volunteered, I love camping!" Levi responded with a bit of a nostalgic look on his face. "My dad, the General, he liked taking me and Tom out into the woods or the plains every now and then. He used to take it really seriously. Said it got him in touch with his roots."

"In touch with his roots?" She asked him. Levi just chuckled.

"He was an old-school Texan. He took the cowboy thing really seriously! The clothes weren't just a fashion statement for The General." Levi said to her, thinking back about it. "Of course, the camping we did was nothing like this."

"Let me guess, you slept under the stars around a campfire?" She teased him.

"No, but our trips were less frankfurters and marshmallows and more fishing poles and rifles." Levi said, causing her to blink a little. "Like I said, he took it really seriously. We ate what we could forage, catch or shoot."

"Considering the fact the school would barely let some of our kids use safety scissors I don't think that pitch would go well with the PTA." She chuckled as she poured Levi some coffee.

"It's kind of nice, but yeah…I think the kids would prefer camping this way." Levi said, putting some buns into the cupboards. "So I take it this isn't your scene?"

"Camping was great when I was a Girl Guide, but now…now I'd kind of like a quaint little B&B." She told him. "There is one up in the woods I used to go to that I loved. It's just down by the lake. I love it there, I think I've spent almost every Birthday there."

"If you love it, why haven't you been lately?" Levi asked her. "Don't…don't tell me it got flattened in one of the monster battles."

"Actually…"

"Oh man, I know a lot of stuff gets messed up, I sometimes can't keep track of what's been hit and…"

"No, it's not that." She told him. "I um…I haven't been there since before the divorce."

"Oh." Levi said, feeling a little bit awkward. He was well aware her name was 'Mrs Finch' for a reason. She had made no secret about her previous marriage, or the rather less than stellar circumstances that led to its end. She'd never gotten around to changing her name back. "Gee…now I almost wish we had flattened it."

Mrs Finch handed him his coffee, but hit him playfully as she did. Levi just thought about it for a little bit.

"You know, if you love it so much there, maybe you shouldn't let the fact your ex took you there prevent you from going back." He suggested. "No reason he should get that in the divorce right?"

"I don't know. It's just…I don't know if I'd like going by myself." She replied. "It was kind of an 'us' place for us."

"Well…how about if you're not alone?" Levi asked. She just arched an eyebrow.

"Mr Weston, what are you proposing?" She asked him.

"Maybe two friends, heading out there, a quiet weekend." He suggested. "I trust the food is good."

"Well, you don't have to catch it or shoot it yourself." She told him. "But last time I was there I really liked their menu."

"Then how about you check your diary and find a weekend that works for you?" Levi asked her.

"Aren't you kind of…you know…needed here?" She asked him. "In your other job?"

"The one benefit of those suits is you can move pretty quickly when you need to." Levi assured her.

"I guess I'll check my diary then." She told him as she took a sip of coffee.

Dane had been in San Francisco a couple of days now, but his search was proving to be a lot more frustrating than he had originally intended. Shane had provided him with the kind of lead he never could have dreamed he'd get on his search for Mariko. It turned out, just like him; Mariko had received a helping hand from the Academy in setting up outside of the Academy. In this case Shane had called in a favour from his brother Porter, who was a property developer, in order to set her up in an apartment in San Francisco, the closest thing she'd had to a home outside the Academy. Tori had narrowed down as he suspected, that Mariko had said she was coming to the city but after that, he was left with a long search. Shane had managed to provide him with a street address. One, admittedly, that was several years old and may no longer be valid but he still had something to work with...or so he thought.

It turned out that he had more to worry about than just the fact Mariko may have moved on in the time since she had left. The street address itself proved difficult to find, and Dane had underestimated how much a city could evolve and change in sixteen years. As he stopped another stranger to verify for the fourth day in a row that he was indeed on the correct street, he found himself once again standing outside a rather quaint little diner. Real estate in San Francisco, as it was in any built-up city, was a valuable commodity. It appeared as though at some point the apartment block he was expecting to find had been converted or torn down.

He'd done this circuit now for about three days, and was quickly running out of options so he decided to go inside this time. The place looked like something from straight out of a Riverdale comic. From the chrome-edged tables covered in garish Formica to the bright red stools bolted into the floor at the counter there was a distinct feeling of stepping back in time to a kind of Americana he wasn't certain had ever existed outside of some very rose-tinted views of the fifties. He crossed to the counter and took his place on a seat.

"What can I get for you?" The guy behind the counter asked him. From the striped shirt with suspenders to the bow tie, the only thing missing from this guy was a waxed moustache. Dane took a quick glance up at the menu.

"Just a coffee." He told him.

"You sure?" He asked. "We do a deal with a slice of pie for an extra dollar. The cherry just got pulled out the oven!"

Dane thought about it for a moment, before gesturing for the man to go ahead. He didn't know how fruitful any kind of inquiry here would be but if he was going to start asking about things that happened before the cafe opened, he figured putting a little cash in the register first couldn't hurt his chances.

"I've seen you floating around outside the shop the last couple of days." The man commented as he went to pick out a slice of pie for Dane. "Did it take you this long to decide on a coffee?"

"I'm kind of looking for someone." Dane told him. "How long has this place been here?"

"Must be going on...twelve years now." The man said as he popped the pie onto a plate and went to the ice cream cabinet. "A la mode? No extra charge."

"Vanilla, thank you." Dane told him. "Twelve years? That's a long time."

"Why, what were you looking for?" He asked.

"A friend of mine, an old friend, I was told she lived in an apartment at this address." Dane said as the guy put the plate in front of him and gave him a spoon, before going to the coffee pot.

"Apartment block?" He asked, looking a little curious. "There are a couple of apartments above the shop but a block? Not as far back as I can remember."

"There are still apartments here?" Dane asked. "Do you know anyone that lives up there?"

"I see them in passing sometimes. Occasionally one of them will stop by for a joe on the way to work." He said as he gave Dane his coffee. Dane took one sip and put the cup down straight away. Why anyone would want to drink this he had no idea. It was bitter, and had a weird consistency to it that made it seem like the guy had never even heard of coffee before, never mind made it. "Who are you looking for?"

"Her name's Mariko." Dane told him. The man stopped for a moment, thinking about his answer. It took him a good while, making Dane wonder if perhaps risking the coffee here had been a good gamble after all. However, he just shook his head.

"I'm sorry sir, that's not a name I'm familiar with." He answered, just as the bell above the door sounded. Dane looked around seeing some men in suits coming in. "Enjoy the pie. Gentlemen! I have your usual booth over here!"

Dane took a bite out of the pie, and almost gagged. If the coffee was bad, the pie was even worse! The guy had managed to somehow make it sour, sweet and salty all at the same time! As the man went about his business, Dane was considering leaving when he noticed the man heading into the back. He came back a moment later with a whole different pot of coffee and some truly spectacular looking pastries. As he had another look around, he started to notice a few odd things about the place. Apart from the table that just walked in, he was the only customer in the place. Despite the cafe being in the heart of Castro, one of the busiest neighbourhoods in San Francisco, other people just walked straight past. A quick look at the reaction from the guys at that table said that their meal was significantly better than his. The man talked with them made it seem as if he knew them well, and was going out of his way to please them.

Dane watched on a little longer. The men at the table all wore dark suits. The largest of them was a true monster of a man, easily upward of 300 pounds and bald. While he was quite rotund, Dane could recognise the signs of someone whose build hid great power. Although they were noted for being large, and many dismissed the sport as just shoving and slapping, the sumo wrestlers of Japan were incredibly thickly muscled and had immense power behind them. Between his posture and the line of his suit, Dane could recognise the fact the man's girth concealed a significant muscle mass. As one of them leaned over to point to an item on the menu, he saw a shoulder harness, and the glint of a pistol just under his jacket...these men were armed! While America did have the right to bear arms, in most places one needed to have a concealed carry licence if they wanted to carry weapons that weren't openly on show. That meant either these men had such licences or were carrying their weapons illegally. He had a distinct feeling it was more likely to be the latter.

Dane picked up his cup, braving another sip of coffee to make it less obvious he was watching the men as he looked for a reflective surface so he could keep his eye on them. There were some envelopes being exchanged, and when the large man handed over cash for the meal, it was definitely not the four dollars that Dane had paid for a coffee and a slice. He could recognise. As he took a sip, he noticed that one of the men gestured in his direction. The man running the cafe said something that made them all start talking among themselves as one of them kept an eye on him. It didn't take long for one of them to come over to the counter.

"Hey, Tony, wanna put a grilled cheese on for me? Make it nice and gooey just the way I like." The man told him, before looking to Dane. "Nice place, huh?"

"It's definitely something." Dane replied.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before." The man continued. "Are you just passing through?"

"It depends." Dane stated.

"On what?" He asked.

"How long it takes to find what I'm looking for." Dane said.

"Well, maybe I can help." The man said. "You know...to help get you on your way."

"I'm looking for a friend that lived here." Dane told him. "Her name was Mariko."

"Sorry, doesn't ring a bell." The man said, though he did hesitate. It was way too long for Dane not to pick up on the fact he thought about his answer too much for it to be the truth. He clearly recognised the name.

"She might have looked a little like this once." Dane said, showing him a picture. "She might have been here with a young kid..."

"I said she wasn't here." The man told him. "Enjoy the pie."

"You know, you do seem awfully certain that she wasn't here for someone you said you don't know." Dane answered. This caused the man to stop his journey back to the table. He turned back to Dane, putting his hands on his hips.

"You a cop?" He asked.

"No." Dane replied.

"A fed?" He asked.

"Why would you think...?"

"You ask an awful lot of questions." He stated.

"Like I said, I was looking for a friend." Dane told him, starting to size up the situation. The man in front of him was armed, and by the looks of things was right-handed. It would take him at least a couple of seconds to pull out his gun, more than enough time for Dane to stop him. The others in the corner, he could use the man in front of him to prevent them taking action. The way they watched on, he seemed to think they at least cared enough about him to not be willing to shoot through him. The door wasn't far away; he could easily get enough time to get out if he needed to. The largest man got up and made his way over. This made things a little murkier, the bigger man was clearly someone that got respect from the others, and he knew they wouldn't act if it meant harming him. Of course he was so huge that it did cut down potential escape routes. He put his hand on the man's shoulder.

"Go sit down."

"But..."

"I said sit down!" The bigger man told him. The other guy backed off a few places, before the bigger man smiled at Dane. "Look, your friend clearly isn't here, and the pie...it really isn't that good."

"That's one thing we agree on." Dane answered. "Yours looks pretty good though."

"The door's over there." The big man told him. Dane just got up, gathering up his jacket, before heading for the door. He wasn't intimidated, despite their efforts, but they had confirmed one thing, someone here did know who Mariko was, which meant they might know where she went. He just knew when the situation wasn't to his advantage. As he left, the large man turned to his associate.

"I said sit down." He told him.

"I was just..."

"When I tell you to do something I expect you to do it!" He stated bluntly.

"Hey, I've earned my bones, just like you Benny!" He replied. "That deal you sent me on was an ambush and I still walked out..."

"You got lucky in Fresno, Bob!" He reminded him. "That guy was clearly fishing! Now get your grilled cheese and sit your ass down!"

Bob turned to the counter, picking up his plate as they both headed back towards their table.


	12. Camping Trip

At Summer Cove High, the Rangers' class was getting ready for their camping trip. It was part of their nature studies' class and as well as being a fun break for a lot of kids who were going to be facing numerous exams and a lot of difficult decisions in their very near future. Most of them had already put out numerous college applications and were going over grant and scholarship applications. Some of them had received offers while others were still waiting, though the one thing that was true was that the last few months, and particularly in the next few, a lot of them were going to be consumed and overwhelmed with a lot of decisions that would shape the rest of their lives. Despite how much they all considered themselves grown-ups, it was still a lot to ask of a group of people who were around 17 or 18 years old and so it was a way to give them even a short break away from all that to just have what, sadly for a lot of them, may well be the last moments of being a kid.

Principal Hastings came out to the bus, where Levi was just helping load up the supplies with the Clint and the driver.

"Are you almost ready Mr Weston?" She asked him.

"Yeah, we've pretty much finished up here." He responded, before turning and looking at her. "That's…that's quite some outfit. I thought we were hiking in the woods, not going on safari."

"I know it's a little much, and probably a little silly but my family has a bit of a history with this kind of thing." She told him. "Some of my ancestors were prospectors, some of them cartographers. I guess it's one of the reasons I love this trip so much. It gets me in touch with that part of my family tree."

"I thought your family was mainly in the oil business." Levi commented.

"What do you think they were prospecting for?" She replied with a smile. "Just because some of them found something and became corporate doesn't mean I can't get a kick out of the fact most of them were primarily explorers at one time."

"I suppose I do lean into my family heritage a little." Levi chuckled, adjusting his Stetson. "I know the hunting and fishing thing is a no-go, but I'd still have loved to take some of the kids to show them some tracking and trapping tricks."

"Oh, that's really not necessary, we're not here to teach kids how to be Bear Grylls. They can learn all that stuff from the Scouts or the Military if it interests them." She told him. "Our duties this weekend are mainly of the contraceptive variety."

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that please?" Levi asked.

"A couple of dozen kids, full of hormones who are under tremendous pressure to make life-changing decisions in the very near future?" She summarised. "A lot of what we're here for is to make sure kids stay in their own tents. I've not had an unplanned pregnancy from one of these trips yet and I don't plan to start now."

"Oh, thank God." Levi stated as they headed back towards the school. "Here was me thinking you meant you wanted me to go to the drug store for 'something for the weekend'."

"Just make sure the kids are too tired and having too much fun to traipse off somewhere and get into trouble." She told him.

"You know what would tire them out right?" He asked.

"No hunting!" She called back. "But…bring your guitar. A few campfire songs should keep them all where we can see them."

"I never go anywhere without it." He assured her.

Inside the class, the kids were starting to get ready for the trip. Most of them were assembled already and talking at length about how much they looked forward to it. Although they were very much the I-phone generation, so many of them were getting bombarded on all sides from colleges, employers and recruitment drives from the Armed Forces, for a considerable number of them a couple of days away from the city, their computers and yes, their parents too, sounded pretty good even if it did mean sleeping in the woods on the ground.

The Rangers were gathered around Sandy, laughing and joking as they prepared for the trip. True to his word, Preston was introducing her to his friends, a move she was so keen on that she even allowed him to tell his friends that she was deaf. It wasn't something Sandy was ashamed of, it wasn't her fault that her birth parents hadn't managed to keep up with all her vaccinations and a childhood bout of meningitis had left her without her hearing, but she didn't really advertise the fact either. She didn't like it when people treated her differently, so much so that although she could sign, she generally didn't, being pretty accomplished at lip reading by now. All she really needed was to be able to see someone speaking and she could figure out what they were saying.

Her nerves were not well-founded, and she found them quickly melting away. They were very welcoming, and if anything were only curious to learn more about her.

"Really? So…you can't hear anything?" Hayley asked her. "But…you're in music class with us."

"That's why I take my shoes off." She explained. "I can feel vibrations through the floor, so I can 'hear' music that way."

"So, we just need to look at you when we're talking to you?" Calvin asked her. "I mean, I guess we can do that I just…I just did it again didn't I?"

Calvin didn't really notice the fact that he had a habit of looking around the group when he was talking. It was an unconscious thing that a lot of people did when talking with groups. A lot of people spent a lot of their lives being told to look at who they were talking to, which meant that especially in large groups they would regularly switch who they were looking at so that they could as much as possible maintain eye contact with everyone. Of course, what it meant for Sandy was that if he turned away it made it harder to ascertain what he was saying.

"I can still piece together some of it." She assured him. "But…yeah, it doesn't make it easier."

"I'll try to bear that in mind." Calvin told her. "Wow, I guess I never thought about anything like that before."

"A lot of people don't." She told him. Just then, Principal Hastings and Levi came into the classroom. The kids all quickly got into position to pay attention. It was a breath of fresh air how quickly they settled down to get ready, but between the fact the camping trip was a fun break for them all and the fact that as an extra-curricular activity strictly speaking the school could simply opt to leave them behind if they didn't behave, the kids were well aware that there were a lot more consequences for misbehaviour before they got on the road.

"Listen up class!" She called out, before blowing a whistle. It was shrill and got a pretty immediate response from all the kids. "Today is the Summer Cove High, annual camping trip! It's my favourite outing of the year! The smell of pine trees, fresh air, babbling brooks…it really is amazing just getting back to nature."

She spent a moment staring off into the distance, before she realised, she hadn't said anything in some time. She had to shake herself back into the present.

"Alright, once we're dropped off, you will need to use a map and a compass to find the campsite." She told them. "Does anyone know why…?"

"Uh…Principal Hastings? Why do we have to use them?" One of the kids asked. "My phone has GPS. It can track where I am to within three feet anywhere on the planet."

"Ah, a good question. Well, my first question would be what if something happened to your phone?" She asked.

"You know, a map and a compass can break too…"

"I was meaning it running out of battery." She responded. "I asked you all to have your phones fully-charged, but that's for emergencies only. Especially with modern phones with all their aps and everything running all the time, the battery in an average phone can run out pretty quickly and how will you call for help if you have no battery life? At this point, I'd like you to all switch your phones off now."

The class all pulled out their phones and started turning them off.

"The only source of electricity will be the battery on the school bus, which will be returning to the school once it drops us off at the edge of the woods." She told them. "So, no playing games or anything. I'm serious about this, because in the unlikely event you get lost, that phone could be the only way for you to contact help. Now, back to the original question. Why do we need a map and a compass?"

"The map shows the area; we use that to tell us where we are and where we're going." One student said. Principal Hastings just nodded.

"So, that explains the map. How about the compass?" She asked.

"It allows you to see which way is north." Hayley said, raising her hand. "The map is only good if you have good markers to work by, otherwise you don't know which direction you're travelling. You could walk for miles in the wrong direction and not know for hours."

"Exactly right Hayley!" She said in a congratulatory tone. She pulled out her own compass. "Now, a compass works on a very simple principle. Due to magnetic forces it always points north…"

"Wow, that compass looks REALLY old!" One of the students stated. She just sighed.

"It belonged to my grandmother." She stated.

"My grandfather had a compass just like that." Brody said with a smile. "He passed it to my dad."

"My grandmother was a cartographer. In fact, she made many of the early survey maps around this area, including the one we're using today." Principal Hastings told them. "Now, what other methods are there to use to determine where they are."

"Moss!" One of the kids called out. "Moss always grows on the south side of a tree."

"It's the north side dumbass." Another stated.

"No, I'm sure it's the north side!" The first called out, beginning a rather heated discussion. Principal Hastings quickly broke it up with another blast of her whistle.

"The story is it's the north side, and besides, that's exactly all it is, a story." She corrected both students. "Moss, like any other plant, grows pretty much anywhere it likes that it has its ideal conditions. Namely that it's moist and has limited light. Other than that, it can grow on whichever side of the tree best suits its needs so congratulations you're walking around in circles. Anyone else?"

"The sun." Sarah suggested. "It always moves east to west, so from that you can ascertain north and south."

"Very good Sarah." She replied. "Though that also does take a little time to figure out which direction it's moving and also that there are weather conditions that don't prevent you from seeing the sun. Anyone else?"

"The stars." Someone else replied.

"Very good!" She agreed. "But that only works at night and again only if you can see the stars AND have a good knowledge of astronomy."

"So, what you're saying is…"

"Take VERY good care of your compass and your map!" She said firmly. "They are invaluable tools and well worth keeping safe. Now, we're about to head off and…we appear to be two students short."

"No prizes for guessing who." Hayley said, rolling her eyes. Almost on cue, the door flew open and Victor and Monty came strutting in. If Principal Hastings' outfit was a little much, as always, Victor and Monty had gone for the mantra of 'there is no over the top'. There was laughter from the other students.

"Doctor Livingston I presume?" Preston asked, eliciting a laugh from the class by citing one of the most famous greetings in history. Victor though didn't seem to be taking any notice of the mocking as he adjusted his hat.

"Well, we just wanted to come prepared." He said, levelling a strange type of gun over his shoulders. "You can't be too careful with that mysterious rhino running around."

"Rhino?" Sarah asked, a little sceptically. "What rhino?"

She didn't see Preston giving her the cut-throat gesture to get her to stop. Since she had only moved to Summer Cove earlier in the year, she hadn't heard many of the town's old stories and urban myths. The Summer Cove Rhino was just one such myth.

"Why, let me fill you in." Victor said as he panned his hand across the air, like he was gesturing to some screen that would let her see the story. "Years ago, a rhino escaped from a transport heading for the Summer Cove zoo. Word is that it now roams the forests and woods looking for unwary travellers to attack."

"Uh…Victor?"

"Legend says that it has a giant horn, like a curved…banana!" He declared, making the gesture with his hand. "For years, it has roamed the woods, driving away unsuspecting campers with its vicious nature and ferocious charges."

"Uh…Victor?"

"But…we plan to end all that on this trip!" He declared, bringing the gun down for them to see. "Behold our latest creation, the net cannon!"

"We're going to catch it!" Monty declared proudly. "And we're going to bring it back triumphantly, ending the threat of the dreaded Summer Cove rhino!"

Everyone just stared at them for a few moments, before bursting out laughing. Victor just stood defiantly before them.

"What?" He asked.

"Victor, rhinos don't live in the woods, they're a plains animal!" Brody told him.

"Yeah, and they're herbivores. They don't eat meat so why would they attack humans unless they felt threatened?" Preston asked him.

"Well, uh…"

"You won't be laughing when we catch it!" Victor told petulantly, at which the gun accidentally went off. Fortunately, true to his word, the gun only did fire a net, which draped itself over a rather less-than-amused Principal Hastings. "I'll just…uh…put the safety on…"

He accidentally fired again, this time netting Levi. The Gold Ranger pulled the net off himself quickly, glaring at Victor who just put the gun down before any more accidents could happen. Victor saw Sandy and went over to her, lifting up his leg and putting it on a seat next to her.

"WHOA!" All of the Rangers called out, recoiling.

"So, what do you say Sandy? Would you be impressed if I brought back the rhino?" He asked her. Preston felt something rising up in his stomach as Victor gave Sandy a big, toothy grin. He felt a little ill and put out, before Sandy just looked up to him.

"Victor, do you know how big a rhino actually is?" She asked him.

"Well…it's bigger than a horse…"

"By a considerable margin! A fully-grown rhino would weigh several TONS!" She told him. "So, not only am I certain that if there was a rhino running around someone would have found it long before now, I really do have to wonder what you're planning to do with those flimsy nets."

"I've seen fish that would make short work of those things." Levi agreed.

"But…but…the rhino…"

"Is just a story and nothing more!" Principal Hastings told him.

"Yeah, and Victor? You might want to consider NOT going commando in those shorts." Hayley said to him. "You're…kind of on display."

Victor just took his leg off the chair, looking a little embarrassed as he started to turn pink and backed off.

"Alright, everybody on the bus." Principal Hastings told them. "Oh, and Victor, the gun stays here!"

"But…but…"

"The gun stays here, or both of you do!" She said abruptly. Victor and Monty both just hung their heads as they joined the class in leaving the room, leaving their treasured net cannon on the teacher's desk.

Up on the Warrior Dome ship, Cosmo was hyping up the audience for the next show. Now that the Galactic Ninjas had finally chosen which of them would face the Rangers next, Odious was eager to get things moving along. Cosmo was still reeling from the weird and eccentric ways of this group of warriors, but he was nothing if not an opportunist and a showman. He had seen Rygore and saw a strong and resilient warrior that would no doubt test the Rangers to the limit. While Speedwing was powerful, he was something of a one-trick pony. His speed made him a tough opponent, but it turned out once his speed was negated, he was fragile with it. Perhaps if a speeding bullet was not the answer, then a lumbering tank would be.

"Ladies and Gentlemonsters! Back by popular demand, I give you the Galactic Ninjas!" He declared proudly. "And, they have chosen one among their number to avenge their fallen comrade and destroy the Rangers once and for all! I'd like you to give it up for the devious, the cunning, the brilliant, the wildly unpredictable RYGORE!"

Rygore stomped out of the shadows and into the spotlight as the crowd chanted his name. He stomped on the floor, shaking the entire ship. He was powerful indeed, and while he prided himself on his strategic mastery, Cosmo was more than confident in his ability to take whatever the Rangers had to throw at him and deliver it back with interest.

"My medallion is fully charged, and I'm ready to crush those troublesome Rangers once and for all!" Rygore declared proudly.

"Now, Rygore, we keep hearing about your strategic brilliance and your cunning ways." Cosmo said as he offered him the microphone for an interview. "Without giving too much away, tell us, what master scheme can we expect from you?"

"Behold!" He said, pulling a huge six-sided die from seemingly nowhere. Cosmo just blinked.

"Uh…OH, so…what is the die for?" He asked him.

"I roll my special dice to decide which ninja strategy I'm going to use on my enemies!" He proclaimed to the audience full of pride and bravado. Cosmo just scratched his head.

"You…roll a die and…that tells you what to do?" He asked.

"EXACTLY!" Rygore answered. "I roll my special dice and my enemies will never know what to expect! They'll be so confused and disorientated that they won't be able to come up with a counter plan!"

"You…roll a die…and…THAT'S YOUR PLAN?"

Without a word, Rygore teleported down to Earth. Cosmo just stepped off the stage to where Odious and Badonna were waiting.

"His idea of strategic brilliance is…that?" He asked.

"Well, I suppose his enemies won't know what to expect if he doesn't know what he's going to do either." Odious said with a shrug. Cosmo just shook his head in disbelief.

"You're alright with this plan?" Cosmo asked. "It's so stupid!"

"Well, obviously he did refer to it as a dice." Badonna quipped as she tried to keep a straight face. "Everyone knows dice is a plural. It's a die if there's only one."

"THAT'S your problem with this?" Cosmo asked.

"Well, he has managed to lay waste to numerous enemies with this approach, who are we to argue?" Odious said in an off-hand way. "Come Badonna, we have other matters to discuss."

As they walked away, Cosmo just threw his hands up in the air.

"Has literally EVERYONE on this ship gone insane?" He declared, before gesturing to some Kudabots. "I'm going back to the Executive Lounge with the others. I need so much drink!"


	13. The Die Is Cast

Dane hung around the café, keeping an eye on things as the day progressed. He still had no idea what they knew about Mariko, but he could tell from the reaction when he mentioned her name that Benny and his associates were at least familiar with the name. Sixteen years was a long time, and while it was possible that they only knew her as someone that once lived in the block above the café, it was the first solid lead he'd heard since he left Blue Bay Harbour.

The one thing he noticed was that for a café in the Castro neighbourhood of San Francisco, it really wasn't that busy. Given the quality of the food and the coffee, whose aftertaste was still distracting him now almost an hour later, he wasn't especially surprised it wasn't popular, but as he watched it seemed to be even more than that. People didn't just walk past; they actively avoided the place! Some crossed the street when they were about to get to it, one guy almost got hit by a car apparently giving priority to avoiding the place over ending up as a road traffic statistic. It was something of an extreme reaction for a place with cherry pie that tasted like it was garnished with battery acid.

As time went on, he saw more people going in wearing suits. Whenever they did, they got served from the back, not the stock at the front, and all of them paid way above the odds for anywhere! The sheer volumes of cash being handed over the counter explained how a place that seemed to be actively trying to drive customers away stayed open in an area with rates as high as Castro. He wasn't looking at a café, it was a front, a cash house. It was pretty clear these guys were mobsters, and having a legitimate business to launder the money through was always going to be a good thing. Looking at the comings and goings it seemed a lot like this place was some kind of central reserve for whatever operation they were running. He doubted Porter knew what was going on, somehow, he doubted that the Wind Ninja Academy would willingly have set Mariko up on top of a gang hideout.

He was trying to think of his next move, how he would get to know whatever they did about Mariko. Somehow, he doubted that they'd be open to the prospect of just telling him what he wanted to know. Bargaining was also a thought, but considering the fact he didn't really have much in the way of money, he wondered what, if anything, he would have to trade with. He owned the farm back in Summer Cove, so he didn't have a mortgage to pay, other than that he only took on odd jobs to pay for groceries and the like. He didn't have much need of anything else. The life of a hermit had suited him, though it didn't leave him exactly much to bargain with.

He saw a crew coming back in a van, and recognised the guy that threatened him earlier jumping out the side, before gesturing them to take it around the side. His suit was a lot less dapper now than it had been, and even from here he could spot traces of blood on it. Whatever had happened, it wasn't anything good. At least, not for him. For Dane though, what he saw was one of them going into the café alone!

In Summer Cove, the school bus pulled up to the edge of a hiking trail and let the kids out. True to their word, the bus driver took the bags off, and then drove off, heading back for the town. The kids had wondered if Principal Hastings was only telling them that the bus would be leaving to get them to do as she asked, but as it disappeared, more than a few kids turned off their phones to preserve their battery life just as they had been asked to do back at the school.

"Alright, we're here. Who can tell us where we are on the map?" Principal Hastings asked.

"Crayfish point." Calvin stated.

"That was fast Calvin, I'm impressed." She told him. "How did you figure that out?"

"The uh…sign is right over there." Calvin said, pointing to the sign. Principal Hastings just groaned loudly.

"Just for that Mr Maxwell, you can be the one to give us our first heading." She told him. "The first checkpoint is precisely half a mile on a heading of North North West."

"Alright, well, according to the compass, that way is north." He said, lining up the needle with the north point on the compass. "So, north north west is…that way."

"Very good." She told them. "Now, who can tell me what landmark we're looking for to tell us we've ended up in the right place?"

"OK, you said half a mile." Monty said as he lined his map up to north. "This is crayfish point, so if I look north north west and go half a mile…we should find…a stone circle."

"Very good Monty." Principal Hastings congratulated him. "Alright class, we have a long way to go, so let's head out."

"Come on guys, it's only half a mile." Levi added. As they started heading out, pairing up for safety reasons. Brody was just about to look around for a partner as everyone started getting paired up, when he felt someone grip his arm tightly. He looked down, seeing Emma clutching onto him.

"Want to be buddies?" She asked him. "You know…the sensei guiding the student and all that?"

"Uh…yeah, sure why not?" Brody asked. He did like Emma's enthusiasm for her lessons, even if as a student she was a lot of work. He could fault a lot of things about her, such as her lack of balance, co-ordination, timing, but the one thing she had in spades was enthusiasm. No matter how many times she ended up on the ground trying to do even the most basic things, she always got back up with a smile on her face ready to try again. Still, she was starting to get more than a little clingy, like she wanted to spend every waking second with him. He looked around, but everyone else had indeed paired up, leaving him without much of a choice in the matter.

"So, do you think they'll have us doing all this orienteering the whole trip or do you think we might get a chance to go and do some practice?" She asked him.

"Uh…yeah, I'm sure we'll get some time." Brody replied. "So, have you been practicing that stuff I taught you last time?"

"Oh…oh yes, I've been practicing every night! I've just about got it!" She rushed out. "I stubbed my toe on the dresser but I think I figured out what I was doing!"

"That's…good." She replied. "So, looking forward to the trip?"

"Yeah, sure. I used to love camping as a kid." Brody answered. "How about you?"

"Don't know, I've never been." She replied with a shrug. "I'm more of a stay at home on the computer kind of girl than into all those flowers and plants and animals."

She saw Brody looking at her and seemed to start stammering.

"But…but I'm willing to learn!" She rushed out. "I mean, it must all be kind of cool right?"

"Right." He said, trying to hide the exasperation in his tone. "We're falling a little behind, want to pick up the pace a little?"

"Sure!" She answered, quickening her pace.

Dane waited a little before he made his way across the street, following the mobster into the café. He knew he had to wait long enough for him to be inside but if he didn't move quickly there was a chance the others would return from wherever they had taken the van, making the whole thing a lot more difficult than it needed to be. When he got there, the guy was talking to Benny, and it didn't take much to see it wasn't friendly.

"What the hell was that Bob?" Benny yelled at him from his booth. "I asked you to do one simple thing…"

"Hey, it was a collection! Sometimes they get a little rough!" Bob said with a little sneer. Dane didn't know what kind of collection it was, whether they lent this person money or if it was a protection payment, either way it seemed like the unfortunate person wasn't able to pay up.

"So, what did you get?" He asked.

"The guy only had about forty bucks on him." Bob told him. "So, I took some collateral."

Just then a couple of other guys came in from the back. One of them appeared to be carrying a pineapple.

"There wasn't much in the van, only some fruit." One of them said. Bob looked back to Benny, who was shaking his head.

"You stole his delivery?" Benny asked.

"Hey, he was short, so I took…"

"He's a GREENGROCER you moron!" Benny snapped at him. "How exactly do you expect him to get the rest if he has nothing to sell?"

"He's got a point." Dane said, making his presence known. They all just stared at him. "I mean, you could do with better ingredients for your pies for sure but there are better ways to go about it."

"You again?" Bob asked. "I warned you…"

"Yeah, your pie and coffee did that too." Dane said with a little chuckle, palming a salt shaker into his hand. "But I don't take warnings well. I'm the kind of guy that sees a wet paint sign and thinks it says 'touch here to see if we're lying'. You know?"

"The only wet paint around here is going to be your brains on…"

Bob didn't get to finish; Dane saw his hand going for the gun long before he could get to it. He tossed a handful of salt into his face dropping the shaker on the floor. He was over to Bob like a shot and whipped the gun from his holster. He jammed a couple of fingers into Bob's leg, at which he let out a scream and the leg collapsed under him.

The others were starting to move, but Dane threw the gun into one of their faces. In a flurry so fast that none of them could see, he ran through them all, and they were all quickly on the floor, screaming out but unable to move.

He faced off against the last one, who pulled out a pistol. This one however, Dane felt more than a little badly about confronting. He was a kid, a scrawny kid that looked like he'd fall over in a stiff wind. Dane just slapped the pistol out of his hand across the room. The kid then picked up a baseball bat, only for Dane to send it spinning across the room. He finally pulled out a pocket knife that looked more like it was appropriate for use picking his teeth than anything else. Dane just sighed.

"Really?" He asked. The kid dropped the knife and held up his hands. "What are you kid, like…sixteen?"

"F…f…f…ifteen." He stammered out. Dane gabbed him by the scruff of the neck and literally dragged him to the door, before kicking him up the ass.

"Go back to school kid!" He yelled, before turning to Benny. "Really? That kid?"

"I like the Grover kid." Benny responded in a sigh. "Sure, he's scrawny but he's got…something."

"He's going to get a pine box if he stays in…whatever the hell business this is." Dane replied.

"Is there something you want?" He asked. "You know, before I have you killed for crippling one of my crews?"

"They'll be fine. I just manipulated a few nerve points." Dane replied. "They'll all be up and about in a couple of hours."

"What do you want?" Benny asked him.

"The woman I was asking about before, Mariko." He replied. "Where is she?"

"What makes you think I know?" Benny asked.

"Because we're having this nice little chat." Dane answered. "Instead of…you know…you calling on all your goons with a description and putting a price on my head. You wanted to know what I wanted to see if there was a way to get rid of me without any more of…well…this."

"Anyone that can do this to six of my guys without breaking a sweat warrants at least hearing out." Benny told him. "Yeah, I know that name. She used to live above the café."

"I figured that much out already." Dane answered. "I need something I don't know."

"So, is this the part where you threaten me that I'm going to end up like the rest of these guys if I don't tell you?" Benny asked.

"Since I'd actually like to live the rest of my life without a price on my head from…what outfit is this?"

"We call ourselves the Scorpion Cartel." Benny answered. "Alright, I think you've proven you've got some skills we can use. Bob, get your ass over here!"

Bob dragged himself across the floor and hoisted himself up onto a chair, his leg still completely crippled from Dane's attack.

"Bob here thinks we should get into real-estate, he has some idea of getting ourselves a new front business." Benny snorted. "I don't know what's wrong with the café…"

"The café is small potatoes!" Bob protested. "The owners of the race track got into a bit of a bind and are having to sell. If we had that, we could rinse millions though it!"

"You want me to steal a race track?" Dane asked him.

"Not exactly." Benny answered. "We tracked down where the auctioneer lives. We need him to know…which bid to call time on."

"Right, so you want me to shake down the auctioneer." Dane replied. Benny tossed him an address.

"That's where he lives." He responded. "Make sure he knows when the auction is over."

"I only have two rules." Dane responded.

"You have conditions?" Benny asked him. "Alright, I'm curious. Go ahead."

"No one dies." Dane told him. "I'll scare him, but no one gets killed."

"And the other?" Benny asked.

"No innocents. If he has a wife, kids, servants…none of them get harmed." Dane replied.

"I don't care how you do it. As long as he knows that when he brings the hammer down, we walk out with that race track for less than five hundred mil." He stated.

"I'll be back when it's done." Dane answered as he walked out the door.

After a couple of hours of hiking, the class had finally gotten to the camping site. It was a lot more nature than the vast majority of them really cared for. There were more than a few sighs of relief as they all started dumping their bags on the ground.

"Alright class, alright, I know you're all excited to be here but it's not time to rest just yet." Principal Hastings told them. "There's still a lot of work to do to set up the camp. Now, who can tell me why this is a good camping spot?"

"It's the one recommended by the ranger?" Victor asked with a shrug. There was a laugh, but Principal Hastings glared at him.

"Alright, that's true but WHY did he recommend this spot?" She asked. "Come on people, at least pretend for a minute that one day your lives may depend on knowing these things. Why is this a good spot?"

"Well, there's a lake just over there." Monty answered. "With some filters and a fire to boil it that means we have plenty of water."

"Very good Monty! Water is extremely important! While if you're pressed you can live for days without food, without water you'll succumb within only a couple of days." She responded. "What else?"

"The ground looks pretty even." Calvin said with a shrug. "So, we should be able to pitch the tents easily enough."

"That's part of it." Principal Hastings responded. "What else about the ground makes it ideal?"

"The ground is on a slight slope." Sandy offered, holding up her hand. "If there is rain or something, the water will run straight through instead of gathering."

"Excellent!" Principal Hastings congratulated her. Preston just smiled as he saw how happy Sandy was to get complimented by her teacher. "Alright class, start pitching your tents. When you're done, Mr Weston and I will teach you how to make a fire pit."

"Um…question!" Victor said, holding up his hand. "What do we do if the rhino shows up?"

There was a derisive laugh from everyone at the camp. Principal Hastings just face-palmed.

"Victor, for the last time, there is no rhino!" She told him.

"But…but my aunt once said…"

"Victor, for the love of God, I've been on safari! I watched my father hunt a rhino when I was six!" She told him. "If there was a rhino anywhere around here, we'd hear it long before we saw it! They are not exactly quiet creatures."

"But Principal Hastings…"

"That is ENOUGH Victor! There is no rhino!" She barked. "Now, will you please just go pitch your tent?"

As he went to start working on putting up his tent, Rygore crept around the edges of the camp. He had now been trailing the class for some time, at least a couple of hours. It turned out that rhinos could be very quiet, especially if they had ninjutsu training. He had been trailing the Rangers trying to find a good time to launch his attack. The other students really didn't bother him. Not only were they really no threat to him whatsoever, he had no received any specific orders regarding them so at worst he had no particular problem going through them as well. However, there was a greater power at work than him regarding this.

He pulled out his die, the one that had told him to trail the Rangers instead of just attacking as soon as they arrived. He took a deep breath and looked to the die.

"1-2, I attack now. 3-4 I wait until the Rangers go to do something. 5-6 I attack after dark." He said to himself, before tossing it aside. He waited with baited breath for it to stop. It came up a 3. "Well, it looks like I'm waiting for now."

"Oh, good job Sarah!" He heard the one he had identified to be the leader of this camping expedition say. "It's a vast improvement from your performance in camping club."

"Thanks!" Sarah replied, feeling somewhat vindicated. People still told tales of how Sarah couldn't get her tent to stay up for more than a few moments in camping club, and it was nice to finally show what she could do. The clones she had made in order to participate in more extra-curricular activities, it turned out, all drained on her mental energies and just split focus meaning that their performance was incredibly lacking. It was good for her now not to be known as the girl who couldn't pitch a tent. Rygore recognised her from the battle with Speedwing as the Pink Ranger. "Anyone need any help? I'm all done!"

"Hey, Sarah…it looks like you managed to pitch your tent this time." Calvin teased her. Sarah just shoved him over playfully.

"Just for that, you and Hayley can do it yourselves." Sarah answered. "Hey, Mr Weston, want a hand preparing a fire pit?"

"Sure, come with me, we'll see if we can find some wood!" Levi answered back as he and Sarah left the camp.

"Hey, Brody I'm done too." Emma told him.

"Really?" He asked. "I thought you'd never camped before!"

"Yeah, but…technical stuff I'm really great at! You should see what I can do with a Lego set!" She replied. "So…want to go see what I've been practicing?"

"Uh…yeah, sure!" Brody answered. "Come on, it'll be a while before everyone's finished."

As Rygore watched them go, he picked up his die.

"Looks like another choice needs to be made." He stated. "1-3 I go after the Pink and Gold Rangers. 4-6 I go after the Red Ranger."

He tossed the die, waiting until it came to rest. He smiled as he saw the result.

"This is going to be fun!" He stated as he collected it, before picking up the trail. The hunt was on!


	14. Random Encounter

In the woods, far from Summer Cove, Brody and Emma had slipped away from the camp after setting up their tents. The camp was never intended as a prison, and so long as they didn't go too far, they were more or less free to do as they wished within reason. Levi had taken the precaution of heading out and setting up markers so that kids would know if they were heading too far, and more importantly could find their way back. They had found the camp as a group, which meant there was no guarantee that all of them had been paying attention to the orienteering section of the trip. Not to mention some of them would no doubt have left their compasses and maps in the camp when they wandered off. Still, it did give some of the students a little time and breathing space that for many would probably seem alien to them at one of the most hectic periods of their lives.

Brody watched as Emma performed one of the kata he had given her to memorise. She was a nice girl, boundlessly enthusiastic and eager to learn, but she really didn't have much in the way of balance, co-ordination and her fitness could definitely do with improving. It was pretty clear most of her pursuits were indoor types. Still, he could definitely work on those, and even a short time after her first couple of lessons, she was definitely improving...not that she could have done much worse.

Kata were a good beginner exercise. It wasn't just a method of showing people moves, it was also a way to give them a context for what those moves were used for and how to chain them together. Teaching individual moves was one thing, but giving people ideas of how they would use them would help prepare them for when they actually had to use them on someone in self defence. After all, a straight punch, one of the simplest moves in martial arts, was significantly more effective if it was preceded by blocking an incoming attack, which would leave the opponent off-balance, and almost as importantly, knock their guard out the way leaving a clear path to a vital area.

Brody watched her, and couldn't help thinking that she had obviously been working hard. One problem with martial arts instruction, like anything else, was the time between lessons. It wasn't like people didn't have lives outside those lessons and when you relied on someone taking time out of their own life to practice what they learned in their own time; sometimes it slowed the process down. The two things Emma had going for her were that unlike other people, who might only have one or two lessons a week, she and Brody had lessons five days out of seven (she would have no doubt gladly take lessons the other two but for his own sanity Brody needed a weekend!) and it looked like she showed the same obsessive love of practice between lessons as she did in them. She was still shaky, and there were some wobbles and questionable movements, but at least she wasn't ending up on her butt after every move like she had only a short time earlier.

"Alright, when you throw this block...try to make it more of a sweeping motion, like this." Brody told her, demonstrating. Emma watched him, trying her best to emulate the movement. "See, give it just a little more room, a bigger swing, that way you have more power behind it. Yeah, like that...the thing is, if someone's bigger than you, you need a little more strength in the move to get the desired effect."

"But I thought strength was secondary." Emma asked him. He chuckled.

"Well...it is but...you do need some." Brody explained. "It's like...imagine you're trying to stop an on-coming train. What's easier, putting something right in front of it to stop it dead or re-directing it to an empty section of track?"

"Re-directing it." She answered. He nodded.

"BUT, it still takes energy to do that right?" He asked her. She furrowed her brows.

"I...never actually thought about it like that." She quipped. He smiled.

"Don't worry, I hadn't either. It was Sarah who explained it to me in those terms." Brody assured her. "I was trying to get some physics problems and she used martial arts moves to explain them to me. Kind of...put it in terms I understood, you know?"

He stood in front of her, getting into a guarding position.

"OK, I think you're ready for a simple exercise. This is called one-step sparring, do you know what that is?"

"Sparring? You mean you want me to fight you?" She asked him.

"No...one-step is what it sounds like; I do one pre-determined move so that you can practice the appropriate response." Brody told her. "OK, stay there, I'm going to come straight at you with a lunging punch. I'll go slowly, like this."

Brody moved forward with a slow punch, directed towards her centre chest. He stepped back, demonstrating again, then a third time so she understood exactly where he was going. It was indeed a basic exercise. Getting people used to responding to a situation in a controlled way could be built up into forming an instinctual response over time with enough repetition.

"Now, what I want you to do, is step out to the side, and do this block here." He said, showing her the movement, repeating it a further twice to let her see it. "Then when you have, follow it with a reverse punch, like this."

"Just like in the kata!" She surmised. He nodded.

"Yeah, that's right." He answered. "Alright, let's begin."

Brody moved slowly, but she still flinched. He paused.

"OK, I know it's scary when someone comes at you. That's what we have to work on, changing your reaction from this..." He said, mimicking her move away from him. "To this."

"OK, I think I understand." She replied. "Let's go again."

Brody moved in slowly, at which she responded with his demonstrated block and punch combination.

"OK, that's good. Let's go again." Brody said, going another couple of times. Emma managed to pull off the combination a couple of times, so much so Brody decided to try and test her confidence a little. "OK, I'm going a little faster this time, here I come."

He threw the same punch, a little faster, only for her to respond. Sensing her increased confidence he went a couple of more times, just a little faster each time. He was still nowhere near full speed; she definitely wasn't ready for that. However, as he came for her one last time, her punch connected with his jaw. She recoiled, holding her hands over her face.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry..."

"It's OK." Brody assured her, rubbing his jaw.

"Are you OK? I heard your teeth rattle and..."

"It's...fine, trust me." Brody assured her. "It happens sometimes. Still, look at it this way...you know it works now right?"

Emma just sniggered, playfully pushing him. They both laughed for a moment, before Brody heard something a little way off, moving through the undergrowth. He instinctively started looking around.

"What? What is it?" She asked him.

"I'm not sure." He said honestly. "Move behind me."

"Brody, it's probably just..."

"Please, just...do as I say." Brody told her. There were many things it could have been. There were plenty of animals out here...though he was pretty sure no rhinos as Victor had suggested. There were also plenty of other students out here too. It was most likely nothing, but he really didn't want to take any chances with Emma around. He started to make his way into the woods, with Emma following him as quietly as possible.

Over in San Francisco, Dane made his way to the auctioneer's house, staking out where he was planning to hit. He didn't really feel great about the idea of working for a mobster, threatening and strong-arming a man into giving them a favourable outcome in an auction, but he had a feeling that if he wasn't doing the job, Benny would be able to send people that would be a lot less subtle about the whole thing. Looking at the size of the house, he couldn't be sure how many people were going to be there, and he wanted to make sure he knew as much as possible before he made his move at nightfall.

He checked his watch as he saw a vehicle roll in. It was a minivan, driven by a woman in a suit. She got out, letting out a couple of kids, they looked to be about 12, maybe ten, a girl and a boy. A moment or two later, another car rolled in, this one driven by a teenager, a girl who was on her cell phone before she even closed the door. This one tugged at him a little. She was driving, so she had to be at least sixteen, maybe a little older...the same age as the kid Mariko had been expecting when she left. It brought to mind so many questions in him, what was the kid like? Did he have a son or a daughter? How were they doing in school? What kind of interests did they have? He had to shake himself out of it and justify what he was doing again to himself. A wife and three kids, the auctioneer had a family, a family that Bob would no doubt have no problem going through to get to the auctioneer. Dane didn't want to harm anyone, certainly not when all he was there to do was deliver a message.

He made a mental note of where he could see some cameras, and saw the mother beginning to work on an alarm system. All of this was vital to know. Making a few notes, he left to go back to his hotel. He'd come back after nightfall, he worked best at night. The sooner he got this done, the better, and at least if he did it, he might prevent a family being harmed in the process.

Back in the woods, Sarah and Levi were collecting wood for the fire pit. Finding dry wood wasn't especially a problem in California at this time of year, though that didn't mean there weren't lessons to be learned.

"I'd...leave that where it is if I were you." Levi told Sarah as she reached for a branch.

"Really?" She asked. "Why?"

"Because it's Poison Oak." He informed her. Sarah backed off a little. Botany wasn't really one of her major areas of interest. She was always far more interested in circuit boards and machine parts than she was flowers and trees. "It's...not especially poisonous, but burning it is a pretty bad idea. Unless you really want to make all your classmates sick that is."

"Not really." Sarah responded. "So, you really know all this stuff?"

"Dad...The General...was all about survival knowledge. He always said you never know when it might be handy." Levi told her. "When Tom and I went camping with him, we didn't take any food. We just had to learn how to hunt, fish and forage."

"Sounds hardcore." Sarah replied. "So, out of interest...what would you say is safe to eat around here?"

"Well, we don't have any guns so hunting is out unless you want to craft a bow. Same with fishing and a fishing rod." He said, looking around. "So, I'd probably recommend foraging. There's quite a bit out here that is edible."

"I almost poisoned us with the campfire, what makes you think I wouldn't poison us with the local fauna?" She chuckled. He laughed in support.

"Yeah, foraging has its own issues. You really have to know what to look for. It's really all about knowledge and educating yourself." He explained. "If all else fails, stick to stuff you recognise. Raspberries, apples, that kind of thing, but if you don't know enough, best just to leave it alone. You see those mushrooms over there?"

"Yeah?" She asked.

"How about those ones there?" He asked.

"They're the same aren't they?" She asked him.

"Well...that's why you don't forage if you can help it." He responded, pointing to each of the mushroom patches in turn. "That one there would be fine, that one...that one would pretty efficiently send you to the hospital."

"Wow!" She answered. "I had no idea it was that easy to make a bad mistake!" She replied.

"Like I said, just stick to what you know unless you learn more." He replied. "With the raspberries over there, your biggest issue is making sure you pick them from above waist height."

"Why?" She asked him.

"A class trip with 15 boys and no bathroom for four miles, you do the maths." He explained. Sarah's face just turned into a mask of revulsion at the thought. Just then, they both snapped around as they heard something in the woods.

"You hear that?" She asked.

"Pretty hard not to." Levi replied. "Probably just one of the other kids but we should probably check it out."

"Yeah, probably a good move." She answered.

"Just remember, be careful and don't go too far." Levi said, gesturing her out from him. "They might be silly but those Galactic Ninjas are ninjas. If we heard something and it is one of them, they probably wanted us to hear it."

"Levi...that really isn't that comforting." She responded as she fanned out.

Back in San Francisco, Dane was in his room, going over his options for how best to approach the house. He'd taken a few sketches, figuring out what was likely the best route to approach from that would provide him the most cover. The house had cameras, which was like a guard that never tired, never slacked off and couldn't be bribed, threatened or bargained with to look the other way. He already had enough to deal with getting past the alarms and ensuring he didn't alert anyone in the house and bring the family into things without worrying about the cameras too.

He stopped for a moment as he once again thought about the teenager. It wouldn't stop going around in his mind. All three of his children now had grown for the most part without him. Brody and Levi were only children when he became sealed in the Nexus Prism. He did admire the men they had become now, but it saddened him to think that they had done that without him. Brody was a fine man, kind; considerate, honourable...he had accomplished that almost completely on his own. Levi, he couldn't have turned out further from anything Dane could have expected. A country singing sensation? International celebrity? A cowboy? He was, of course, delighted to know that he had a family that loved him in all that time growing up, but there was a massive part of Levi's life that he had no clue about.

The child he had with Mariko though, he had never even met. At least, as far as he knew. He could have walked past his own kid in the street and he'd have no idea. So many thoughts plagued him about this. Were they still in San Francisco? What were they doing now? Were they happy? He still had no idea what, if anything, he'd say if he got the chance to meet them. Would they even want to meet him?

There was a knock on the door and he answered it. His room-service had arrived. A simple Welsh Rarebit. Something light enough that by the time night fell he wouldn't have to worry about it still weighing on him. He passed the waiter some money and dismissed them, before sitting down with his meal. He didn't like what he was about to do, but it was far from his first mistake. Maybe one day, if this panned out, he could begin to make amends for some of them.

Back in the woods, Brody and Emma pushed through the undergrowth, seeking out the source of the sound they had heard. Brody really didn't know if it was a good idea to bring Emma along, but then sending her away presented its own problems. Having faced one Galactic Ninja already, he already knew that collateral damage wasn't something they had a real problem with. At least if he kept her close he would know where she was if he had to act.

He felt Emma bump into him as he stopped suddenly. He just turned to look at her.

"Sorry!" She whispered. "I'm...a little clumsy when I'm nervous."

Brody rolled his eyes and gestured to her to follow him. He felt her grab onto his arm, holding on tightly. He pushed on, searching for the source of the sound. As he heard the rustle one more time, he turned and gestured to Emma to be quiet, before extracting his arm from her.

He got himself into position, and prepared to make his move.

Elsewhere, Levi and Sarah were also searching the woods, trying to keep within sight of each other. Sarah couldn't help thinking about what Levi had said. One of the things that made the Galactic Ninjas so dangerous was that despite their odd behaviour, they were ninjas. They knew the exact same tactics the Rangers did. If the sound was another of the Galactic Ninjas, was it possible they were leading them into a trap? Sarah almost hoped it was just some lost deer or some of their classmates looking for a make-out spot or something.

Levi held up a hand, gesturing to her to stop. They were about to hit a clearing, meaning they would have no cover. They would be exposed. Once they were out there, they would have to be ready to move quickly. Levi counted down on his fingers from three, before gesturing to them to make their move.

Brody broke through cover, finding a figure moving around. Monty backed up so quickly seeing Brody's raised fist he tripped over his own feet. Victor just held his hands up in submission. Brody sighed and rolled his eyes.

"It's just you!" He groaned. "Guys, what are you doing out here?"

"We're tracking the rhino!" Victor rushed out.

"Really? This again?" Emma asked derisively. "What makes you think there's a rhino out here?"

"This time we have evidence!" Monty assured her. "We found some scat!"

"Some what now?" Brody asked.

"Scat." Victor repeated. "You know, ablutions? Poop? Shi..."

"OK, OK I get it." Brody responded. Emma though was still sceptical.

"So, what makes you think it was rhino dung?" She asked.

"There was a lot of it." Monty asked.

"Really? How much?" She asked him. He made a gesture with his hands.

"About...this much?" He answered.

"Monty, the average rhino eats about a hundred and twenty pounds of vegetation a day." She told him. "Do you have any idea how large those bowel movements would be?"

"Can we all stop talking about poop now and head back to camp?" Brody asked. "It's getting late and I'm sure they're going to want to start cooking soon."

"Come on, oh great hunters." Emma chuckled.

"You said you were sure that was rhino scat!" Victor muttered to Monty.

"There was a lot of it!" He protested.

"You're not the one that bagged it for proof!" Victor stated.

"Wait, you actually picked up...wait...never mind." Brody sighed. "I really don't want to know."

Elsewhere, Levi and Sarah broke into the clearing, finding nothing there. They both started looking around for signs of movement.

"Stay sharp." Levi told her. "I don't hear anything, do you?"

"No." She agreed. "That's bad. Nothing goes from making that much noise to silent so quickly without good..."

Just then, a huge die bounced into view. Both Sarah and Levi approached it cautiously.

"...reason." She concluded. "You see that, right?"

"A huge die?" He asked. "Yeah, I see it."

"LOOK OUT!" Sarah called out as she saw some movement. They both dove and flipped aside as a blast came, exploding between them. They both immediately regrouped as a huge form came rushing out of the bushes between them, smashing them both aside as it picked up the die. They started to get up, confronting their attacker.

"Let me guess, Galactic Ninja?" Levi asked.

"That's right! I am the next Galactic Ninja!" Rygore declared, striking a pose as an explosion went off behind him. "I shall avenge Speedwing and destroy you both!"

"Yup...definitely a Galactic Ninja." Sarah sighed, seeing him flexing and posing. "How many of them do you suppose there are?"

"Right now I just want to deal with this one." Levi answered. "So, Rygore is it? What makes you think you're going to succeed where your buddy failed?"

"I am the master of surprise attacks and strategy!" He told them, holding up his die. "BEHOLD! My special dice will tell me which ninja attack I'm going to use!"

"Wait...what?" Levi asked. "You're going to roll a die and that's how you choose how to attack us?"

"You are aware that is literally the exact opposite of a strategy right?" Sarah scoffed as he threw the die. It came up with a 2.

"OH BOY! My special ninja kettle attack!" He responded, pulling out a kettle. Sarah and Levi just looked at each other completely confused.

"So...you're going to do what? Make us a cup of tea?" Sarah asked. With that, a massive jet of steam came shooting out, forcing them both to dodge. She and Levi both took cover as he continued to pan back and forth across the undergrowth.

"You know...I am really starting to hate these guys." Levi remarked.


	15. Planned Chaos

At the edge of a lake, Preston was with Sandy, skipping stones across the lake. The kids all had a little time to themselves, and the camp was getting just a little bit lively for their liking.

Preston smiled, impressed as he watched Sandy throw a perfect throw that hit at least eight skips before it finally went under.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Preston stated, being sure to position himself so that she could see him. It had only been a short time now since he'd found out that she was deaf, but in that time he had made a lot of effort to try and be mindful about how he acted and spoke with her.

"Yeah, I'm the one with the co-ordination in the family." She told him, throwing out another one. "Don't get me wrong, when it comes to science and tech, that's all Emma's domain, but this? I can definitely do this."

"Did, um...did your birth parents teach you this?" He asked her. She just shook her head.

"My birth parents didn't get much of a chance to teach me anything." She informed him. "I've been in foster care since I was about a year old."

"Wow, I'm...I'm really sorry." Preston answered as he started to feel uncomfortable. He didn't claim to know much about the foster care system. Levi had been adopted by the Westons when he was a kid, but he knew enough to know that the foster care system was different. There was a lot more to it, but at its simplest level when a kid was adopted, they essentially became the child of the new family in every legal way, just the same as if they had been born to those parents. To all intents and purposes the adopted family became their permanent family. Foster care was a little different, in that while kids sadly were in foster care for a long time on occasion, strictly speaking it was temporary.

There were any number of reasons a child could end up in foster care. They could have been abandoned, they could have been removed from their parents by the state for reasons of abuse or neglect to protect the child. Sometimes parents had no option but to put their children into foster care if they became unable to take care of them, such as if they became sick or if their financial situation became incapable of supporting their family. Whatever the reason, ideally foster care was only intended as a short-term solution to ensure kids were looked after if their families became unable to give them the care they needed. While there was some crossover between the adoption system and the foster care system, with some children who were fostered for a long time eventually being adopted by their foster parents, it wasn't a sure thing. Preston had mended a lot of bridges with his dad, though their relationship was still a little strained at times, he had always taken his family and home for granted. He couldn't imagine being in the position of literally never knowing how long you were going to be living with any particular family.

"Thank you, but...I don't think you had anything to do with it." She assured him. "My parents are pretty cool, and my birth parents...well, they're not coming back."

"Really? You know that?" Preston asked.

"I have their death certificates." She told him. She saw how awkward Preston looked as soon as she'd said that. "Oh...oh no, I...um...I didn't...I'm sorry."

"You're apologising to me?" Preston asked. She just sighed.

"It makes some people uncomfortable when I talk about it." She said as she skipped another stone. "It's not like I can blame them for dying or anything."

"Sometimes these things aren't logical." Preston answered. "My mom died when I was eight. She was one of the ones that really encouraged me to get into my magic. She used to watch all my tricks, no matter how many times she'd seen them or how much I messed them up."

He could see that Sandy didn't know where he was going with this. He took a deep breath; it was something he didn't really talk about with people.

"One time I did a disappearing trick that used smoke. I seemed to remember mom getting a really bad cough after that. She...died later that year." He said as he tossed a stone, which skipped a couple of times before sinking. "It was lung cancer, but at the time I was just a kid. I only remembered mom getting sick after she got a faceful of my smoke. For a long time...for a long time I thought maybe it was my fault."

"Preston..."

"No, no it's...its fine now. I know there was nothing in that smoke bomb that could have caused it, but...I was just so ashamed and dad was so shaken by losing her I couldn't bring myself to talk about it so he couldn't tell me mom had been sick for a while. She was just on really strong meds that hid the worst of it until things got so bad she couldn't hide it anymore. I just...I just ended up thinking that it was my fault. That maybe if I'd known what I was doing or I had done something different she'd still be around."

"Preston, that's...that's just...I'm so sorry."

She reached out, putting a hand on his arm. Preston looked down to her hand, before looking up into her face and smiling. He couldn't think of anything else to say. He had only told a very small number of people about his mom. He snapped up as there was an explosion from a short way off. Sandy turned towards it too, something that didn't surprise him since the shockwave seemed to be powerful enough to shake the ground they were standing on.

"That's...that's really close." Preston stated. "Sandy, head back to camp."

"Preston..."

"I'm going to...uh...see if anyone's hurt!" Preston told her, running directly towards the direction of the explosion. "I...uh...I know CPR!"

"PRESTON!" Sandy screamed after him as he disappeared into the tree-line. She looked between the direction Preston had gone and the road back to camp, running her hand through her hair as she tried to decide what to do. It took her only a few moments to make her decision.

Elsewhere, Sarah and Levi were still seeking cover from Rygore's steam kettle attack. They quickly morphed as they took cover. Sarah was quick to put her Element Star into her sword.

"Let's see how you like it!" She yelled as she spun the Element Star. "Wind attack!"

The steam cloud blew back into Rygore's face, staggering him for a few moments. Levi and Sarah both leapt to the attack, lashing out at him, but their weapons rebounded off his hide. He responded with a flurry of attacks, which sent them flying, just as the others arrived, quickly morphing, ready for the battle.

"Hey, are you guys alright?" Calvin asked.

"Sorry it took so long, we had a little trouble slipping away." Hayley stated as they squared off against him. "Whoa, is that...a rhino?"

"I'm not just a rhino! I am RYGORE! The master of surprise attacks and strategy, and I am the second..."

He struck a pose.

"GALACTIC NINJA!" An explosion fired up behind him, knocking down a couple of trees. The Rangers just stared at him.

"Another one?" Calvin asked. "How many are there?"

"Let's just concentrate on this one first." Levi said as Rygore produced his die.

"Oh great, not this again!" Sarah grumbled.

"Wait...what's with the die?" Brody asked. "What's he doing?"

"You probably wouldn't believe us if we told you." Levi said as Rygore threw the die. He suddenly started jumping with a childish glee.

"Oh boy, one of my favourites!" He said excitedly as he produced a large canvas bag. He pulled some jacks from it.

"What is he doing?" Brody asked. He didn't need to wait long for an answer as he started throwing handfuls of them at the Rangers. They exploded as they hit the ground, and the Rangers, forcing them into retreat. Their suits protected them, but not by a huge amount. Brody huddled down behind a rock, while Levi stood back-first against a tree.

"So that's what he's doing with the die?" Brody asked.

"It's his idea of a strategy! Apparently he throws the die and that that tells him what to do!" Levi rushed out. Brody recoiled as one of the jacks hit the rock he was hiding behind.

"WHAT?" Brody yelled. "But that makes...like...zero sense at all!"

"Well right now I don't mind admitting he's kicking our butts!" Preston replied. "We need to get that bag away from him!"

"That's easier said than done." Hayley responded. "He's up to foursies! He's got us pretty well pinned down!"

"Well we have to do something!" Preston replied.

"What, hey! That's mine!" They heard him yell. They all broke cover to see what was happening, in time to see the Green Ranger rushing past him, slicing through the draw string of the bag, snatching it and running away with it.

The Green Ranger swung around, throwing the bag at him, but clearly underestimated the size of the explosion. She and Rygore were blasted far apart. She hit the ground and started to write around in pain, while he was only just getting back to his feet. He saw the Rangers coming for him and pulled out his die again.

"Oh great, what now?" Preston asked. He threw the die, before watching as it came up with a one.

"You're in luck, the die called for a tactical retreat!" He told them. "Looking forward to the next roll!"

With that, he disappeared. All of the Rangers breathed a sigh of relief.

"OK, is anyone else getting the impression the only reason that guy gets away with having no idea what he's going to do next is because he's strong enough to deal with the fallout?" Calvin asked.

"That was...really embarrassing." Hayley admitted. "We've had some pretty weird and questionable monsters in our time but a monster that uses the D&D guide to deciding what to do? That's...well...I'm just glad no one else saw that."

"I just can't believe that Victor was right about something." Brody quipped with a shrug. "Turns out there was a rhino out here after all."

"Can...can we not say that Victor was right about something?" Sarah muttered. "That is just...too weird to say."

"Uh guys...look who's still here." Preston said as he pointed toward the Green Ranger. The Rangers all started to come towards her as she was getting up. She looked to be having a little trouble; clearly the blast had shaken her. She saw the Rangers coming towards her.

"Hey, thanks for the help there." Preston stated.

"Yeah, but you might want to be a little careful around explosives from now on." Calvin joked. The Green Ranger started to back away, raising her sword a little.

"What's she doing?" Brody asked. She turned and ran into the woods, leaving the Rangers behind her.

"Hey, wait up!" Preston called after her. "What is her deal?"

"I don't know." Brody replied. "But we should be getting back before we're missed."

With that, they all de-morphed and headed back towards the camp.

In San Francisco, Dane returned to the auctioneer's house, waiting for indications that he had come home. There were still only two cars in the driveway, his wife's and the teenage daughter's. It was a double-edged sword them being here. On one hand, the more people that were there, the more likely it was that someone would spot him other than the man he was meant to intimidate. On the other side though, if his family was there, it was less likely he was going to cause trouble if he felt like it would put them in danger.

He found himself a concealed spot across the street to wait for a good time to make his move. He spotted a car approaching, turning up the driveway and parking up. Dane made sure to get a good look at him as he headed for the house, carrying his briefcase. Watching him go inside, Dane couldn't help feeling a little envy of the man. He was a family man, married with three children. While some of Dane's situation was down to things he couldn't help, like his wife's illness and Galvanax's attack, he couldn't begin to say that much of it was not down to him. He had known of Mariko's feelings for him, and it was not a stretch to say that he used her as a result. Perhaps much of what came about afterwards was karma. If that was the case, what would be the comeback on him for attacking a completely innocent man? He could dress it up any way he liked, tell himself that if he didn't do it Benny would only send someone that would have a lot less reservations about harming the family than he did, but there was no escaping the fact, he knew this was wrong, regardless of the ends.

The man stepped inside, and Dane checked his watch. It would be dark in a few hours, then he would make his move.

Back at the campsite, the Rangers arrived back, and unfortunately their absence had been noticed. Given the explosions in the woods, it was only natural that they would all gravitate back towards the camp. As they arrived, Principal Randall just gestured to them.

"You see Victor? There's no need for a search party! I'm perfectly certain that they have a very good explanation for where they were!" She declared. Principal Hastings knew who they were, and she didn't doubt for a second there was no coincidence in the fact there were explosions in the woods and the Rangers disappeared. She looked to them as they got there. "Good work finding our missing students Mr Weston."

"Uh..." It took a moment for Levi to catch onto the narrative she was trying to create. As a teacher, and chaperone for the group, it was perfectly conceivable that he would have gone to look for any students that weren't in the camp. "...yeah, right. Yeah, I found them. They weren't far. Just...not far."

Principal Hastings sighed.

"So, what happened?" She asked them. They all looked among each other.

"There were...uh..."

"Fireworks!" Hayley chipped in. They could feel ever set of eyes on the camp on them at that point.

"Fireworks?" She asked.

"Yeah, there were...uh...some people...messing around with fireworks out here!" Calvin told her. "They caused a small fire and we...we put it out!"

There was a long and uncomfortable silence. Principal Hastings just shook her head in disbelief.

"Well...good thing no one got hurt." She replied. "Alright students, it's time to start getting ready for the campfire."

As they all started to disperse, Principal Hastings came over to the team.

"Fireworks?" She asked. "You know, for ninjas you should really be a lot better at this."

As she took the firewood from Sarah and Levi, the team just stood and looked at each other.

"That was a lot closer than I'd have liked." Levi commented. "Maybe coming out here with all these witnesses wasn't a great idea."

"Not to mention potential hostages or collateral damage or casualties..."

"Alright Cavlin, we get the point." Brody cut off the Yellow Ranger. "OK, maybe this wasn't my best thought out plan, but...it's too late to do anything about it now. We're stuck here until the bus comes for us on Sunday."

"So, what can we do if that Rygore guy comes back?" Hayley asked. "If we pull an excuse like that out our ass again, there's no way anyone's going to buy it."

"Then we go with priorities." Brody stated bluntly. "Deal with the guy trying to kill us, then worry about having to explain to others."

"That's really not much of a plan." Sarah commented.

"Maybe, but neither is rolling a die and hoping for the best but it seems to be working for him." Brody said bad-temperedly. It frustrated him as much as the others that they really didn't have much of a plan. Even with surprise attacks, they could normally prepare something, anything at all, as a response, but right now, they were completely at a loss.

"OK guys, I'm going to go look for Sandy." Preston told them. "We kind of got separated in the woods and I really just want to check she got back alright."

Preston left his friends to prepare for the campfire with the rest of the class as he went to find Sandy. The class seemed to have noticed they were missing, but since no one had mentioned Sandy, he hoped that was because she had made it back to camp rather than no one noticing the fact a new girl wasn't there.

He breathed a bit of a sigh of relief as he saw Emma and Sandy a little way from the camp, but as he approached, he could hear raised voices. Siblings fought, he understood that much, and he almost wondered if he should leave them to it, but he really wanted to make sure that Sandy had gotten back to the camp alright by herself.

"...That's easy for you to say Emma; you're not the one it happened to! It hurts like hell!" Sandy yelled at her.

"How many times do I keep having to say I'm sorry?" Emma asked. "You know I'd never ask you to do this if I could..."

"But you DID ask me to do it and now look at where we are!" Sandy snapped. "Why the hell can't we just tell...?"

"Preston!" Emma said, pointing behind Sandy. Sandy turned around and hurriedly adopted a forced smile.

"Preston! You're back!" She replied, trying to compose herself. "Um...was everything alright?"

"Yeah, it turned out no one was hurt, just a bunch of idiots playing with fireworks." Preston repeated the lie that the team had opted for. "How about you? Are you OK?"

"Me?" She asked.

"Yeah, I overheard you saying something hurt..."

"Oh...OH! Yes, uh...I just...went over on my ankle coming back to camp." She told him.

"Ouch!" Preston replied, sucking his teeth. "You sure it's OK? I could have a look at it if..."

"Believe me, when you room with the human disaster zone here you know the difference between a twist and a sprain pretty intimately." She assured him. Emma just crossed her arms defiantly and pulled a face. "So, glad to hear it wasn't anything more serious."

"Yeah, me too." Preston answered. "So, want me to get you some marshmallows before Calvin hoovers them all?"

"That would be nice!" Sandy replied with a soft smile. "I'll...we'll be there in a minute."

"I'll get some for you too." Preston told Emma, before leaving. Sandy turned back to her sister.

"Human disaster zone?" She asked bad-temperedly.

"Well, what else would you call it? All of this is because I went along with your stupid idea as usual!" Sandy snapped.

"I keep telling you I just...I wanted...I wanted to be sure about..."

"Well because you wanted to try out your stupid little theory, my leg hurts like hell, everyone in camp is terrified, I've been lying to Preston non-stop..." She listed off, before pulling something out of her pocket. "...and I'm stuck with THIS!"

She thrust the Green Power Star into her sister's chest. Emma's lip started to quiver.

"Please, I...I...I never meant for any of this." She told her. "You know how I am, I'd never have been able to get onto the farm, I'd probably have tripped over my own feet! I'd...I'd take that Power Star if I could but..."

"But that's not how this works, yeah, I know, I'm the one that nearly had to explain to mom and dad why I came back from camp one leg short of a full set!" Sandy replied, snatching the Power Star from her. "I suppose it's still not the time to tell them?"

"I just...I just want a little more time to..." Emma started to whimper. Sandy started to feel awful now. Yes, Emma could be thoughtless at times, she had a knack for coming up with ideas that somehow landed people in Emergency Rooms, but despite everything, she was her sister. She loved her dearly and would do anything for her. She knew Emma would have sneaked onto the farm herself if she could, but given the fact she could trip over her own feet on a perfectly flat floor, she would have been found out in moments. Sandy knew how important all this was to Emma, she just let her frustrations get the better of her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Sandy replied, taking the Power Star back and hugging her tightly. "Just...promise me we can tell them soon."

"I promise." Emma replied, wiping away a couple of tears and nodding. "I just need a little longer."

With that, Sandy put her arm around her and led her back towards the camp. It had been a trying night, but she was sure some marshmallows and cocoa were bound to lift their spirits.

**A/N: **AAAAAND there it is! The reveal that I know at least a few of you had already called! So now we know who the Green Ranger is. There are still questions to answer, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	16. Playing The Odds

On the Warrior Dome, Cosmo and Wrench came into the Executive Lounge to speak with Rygore about his...interesting...performance against the Rangers, but he found that Odious and Badonna were already in the Executive Lounge. He was a little concerned, despite the fact that Rygore was doing well and the Rangers appeared to be having trouble, based on the roll of his die he had abandoned the battle, which would only give the Rangers time to compare notes and try to form some kind of plan for when he came back. He had seen enough fights over his years running this show to know when you were winning the last thing you did was pull out, that was exactly when you should pile on the pressure before your opponent had the opportunity to fall back.

He was surprised though when far from being angry, they were actually laughing! They were standing with the Galactic Ninjas, enjoying some drinks as Rygore re-hashed his whole battle enthusiastically with wild motions.

"So, the Pink one was down and I was like...Hyah! Hyah!" He called out, making extremely exaggerated motions. Badonna started fanning herself.

"Ah, yes, the Rangers never knew what hit them!" She stated. "That strategy of yours is pure genius!"

"Exactly! The genius of it is there's no way the Rangers can predict what I'm going to do because even I don't know what I'm going to do!" He explained, holding up his die. "This takes all of the guess-work out of the decisions I make in battle. No figuring out multiple angles of attack or optimal plans, just...read the die and do it!"

"It has certainly brought him many victories over the years." Wolvermean stated. "With the exception of myself, Rygore has been a Galactic Ninja longer than anyone!"

They all posed, knocking over some kudabot waiters who dropped their refreshment trays. They hurried to clear up.

"Yes, it was all rather impressive." Cosmo responded. "Um...not to criticise but...I can't help but notice you're here drinking and there isn't even one Ranger destroyed yet."

"Relax Cosmo, there's plenty of time for that. You worry far too much!" Odious said, waving off his comment dismissively. "You're always saying you can't rush a good show. Let the audience get what they're paying for!"

Cosmo couldn't have been more stunned if Odious pulled off her mask revealing herself to be a resurrected Galvanax! She was normally the one that was constantly telling him she didn't care about showmanship or spectacle, that all she wanted was to finally succeed where Galvanax had failed and get the Nexus Prism and the Power Stars.

"But...but...but..."

"Oh calm down Wrench, go re-program something or change a circuit board or whatever it is you do." Badonna said dismissively. "So, do, any idea what you're going to throw at the Rangers next?" Rygore just held up his die.

With that, there was a chorus of laughs. Rygore saw some kudabots coming in.

"Oh boy! My spaghetti and meatballs are here!" He replied as they all filed towards the table. Cosmo and Wrench stood back, Wrench scratching his head.

"That...just happened right?" He asked.

"Yes, it did." Cosmo said, pulling out a cigar. "Keep an eye on them Wrench."

"The Galactic Ninjas?" He asked. "It's kind of hard to miss them..."

"No, Odious and Badonna." He clarified. "They're definitely up to something!"

In the camp, the panic of the "fireworks" from earlier had subsided and the kids were starting to settle down and have a good time. It was starting to get dark and it was time to start up the fire and get some food going for the camp. Levi was utilising a bow to start the fire, while Calvin, Sarah and Hayley watched on.

"Levi, do you not think you're taking this survivalist thing a little seriously?" Hayley asked him. "I mean, they have invented these wonderful things called matches."

"And lighters." Calvin said, pulling out a zippo. He saw the way the others were looking at him.

"I didn't know you smoked." Sarah commented.

"I don't." He replied. "But it's handy for lighting the blowtorch in my garage."

"Yeah, I know those things exist, but the school won't let me forage or hunt or fish so...humour me would you?" He asked as he continued working on it, shoving a little bit of foliage into the area he was trying to ignite. He kept working the bow, drawing it back and forward.

"You know, this would be so much quicker." Calvin said, offering his lighter again.

"Yeah, but what if your lighter breaks? Or your matches get wet?" He asked. "This is something that you can always use."

"But it takes ages!" Sarah complained.

"Not if you know what you're doing." He said, producing something that looked a little bit like cotton wool. "My secret weapon."

"Cotton wool?" Calvin asked.

"Not exactly. It's a little thing called fireweed." Levi explained, jamming it into the mix. "It's a pretty common plant, there's loads of it around here, but with a little friction and...wait...wait..."

They saw some smoke starting to rise, at which Levi started blowing on the area. He took some more foliage and built it up until they saw the faintest flicker of a flame starting up. They all marvelled at what they had just seen, while he started to slowly build it up with small twigs. Fires, like anything, needed to be built up. Tossing large logs onto a small flame risked blocking out the air it needed to stay alight.

"Levi, that...that's so cool!" Hayley stated. "I mean, I've seen that done on TV but you actually did it!"

"What can I say? Some kids study computers, some kids learn languages, and some learn how to camp the right way." He said with a smile. "Principal Hastings, the fire's started; it shouldn't be long before we're ready for the food!"

"Excellent work Mr Weston!" She responded. "Alright class, gather around and hand Mr Weston the wood when he asks for it. The sooner we get this fire built the better!"

This was enough motivation to get most of the class gathered around. While not exactly starving by any stretch of the imagination, this was pretty much what the kids came out here for. The idea of sitting around a fire with hot dogs, marshmallows, hot cocoa...this was exactly what they were after. Sarah backed off a little, heading for her tent. Although Principal Hastings had outright told all the kids to keep their phones switched off in case they needed to use them for an emergency, Sarah did want to send a text to her parents to let them know she was safe and she was having a good time. She figured if she only had her phone on for a minute or so it wouldn't take too much of her battery life.

"Psst...hey!" She heard someone say. It took her a moment to locate the sound, but she eventually saw Victor a little way off, lurking in some bushes. She saw him waving her over. She didn't know why she looked around to see that no one was watching, what did she care if the other kids saw her talking to Victor? Still, it looked like he wanted a private word. Well, as private as it ever was with Victor considering Monty was also there, a fact she only became aware of as she got to the bushes.

"Hey." She greeted them. "Um...what's with the bushes?"

"We didn't want Principal Hastings to see! She told us we'd be in detention for a month if we mentioned the rhino again." Victor answered. Sarah just rolled her eyes and stood with her hands on her hips. "We think we've come up with something..."

"A bow?" She asked, seeing what Monty was working on.

"Not just any bow! I've picked the best wood for optimal pull strength..."

"Monty, a rhino's hide is like leather. People that hunt them don't use high-powered rifles for nothing." Sarah told him. "Anyway, I thought you wanted to catch it!"

"Well if that explosion is anything to go by I'd say it's him or us!" Victor said. Sarah couldn't help laughing.

"Wait...you think that was...? Victor...how in the hell do you think a rhino causes an explosion?" She asked him.

"Well, I saw once a documentary about how much methane a cow produces daily." He began. "So I figure since a rhino is so much bigger, how much methane could it...?"

"You think that was a rhino fart?" She asked, unable to restrain her laughing. "Oh Victor, you definitely are entertaining."

"Well...what was it then?" He asked. She looked around; this time she did have a reason to make sure it was kept quiet. Thanks to helping them in the last battle against Galvanax, Victor and Monty knew who the Rangers were. They had promised to keep it quiet, and so far they had managed it, something which admittedly surprised and impressed Sarah.

"Alright, I'll level with you." She told them. "It was a monster."

"A monster?" Victor asked. Monty snapped to his feet and latched onto Victor's arm in terror. "Out...out here?"

"Yeah, it was a rhi...um...an...elephant monster." She stammered, stopping herself before admitting that there was a rhino monster stalking them. She didn't know why it would bother her to let Victor be at least half-right about something. "We saw him off, but he's still alive."

"Well, what if he comes back?" He asked. Sarah had to admit, it was a good question. The team were already concerned about the fact that they were now stuck out here with the entire class if the monster came back. The prospect of casualties was horrifying, not to mention that having a couple of dozen potential witnesses if they needed to morph would make doing so covertly challenging to say the least. That was when she hit on a thought, why hadn't she thought about it before? Victor and Monty already knew who they were! They understood the issue they had with secrecy and that they might need to go and fight the monster again. She looked to them.

"OK boys, consider yourselves officially deputised." She stated. They just looked at each other.

"Deputised?" They asked.

"Yeah, you know...help us out!" She clarified. "Listen, if that rhi...uh...elephant comes back, you create a distraction and make sure everyone pays attention to you and get everyone to safety. Make sure no one's looking at us so we can morph and go take care of it."

"Getting attention is what I do best!" Victor said with a big, toothy grin, striking his best superhero pose.

"Yeah, I know, I saw the dance video from the canteen." She said before she could stop herself. She just paused; worried Victor had noticed what she said. When Game Goblin attacked and Mick needed to stop kids playing the game, he charged Victor with giving the kids something more interesting to look at. His solution? A dance and a strip, followed abruptly by a high-speed streak, pursued by Clint and Principal Hastings! Sarah felt her face grow warm, but Victor was still posing, it didn't look like he'd noticed. "Uh...I mean...I know I can count on you guys!"

With that, she walked away; heading back to the camp, confident that should the situation arise, at very least the odds of slipping away from the class unseen had increased. If there was one thing Victor and Monty did well, it was drawing attention to themselves.

In San Francisco, Dane emerged from some bushes, having changed into his Wind Ninja uniform. It was now getting dark, and close to when he could make his move. There were only two lights on upstairs. A quick look through his binoculars let him know that one of those rooms was the teenage daughter's room, and the other was the auctioneer's office. The teenager could be an issue, teenagers more than younger kids tended to want their own space and spent a lot of time in their rooms. That meant she was close to her dad's office. It would mean he'd have to be careful not to get her attention. The rest of the family seemed to be downstairs in the Living Room. Not wanting to leave it too late, he decided to make his move. Pulling on his hood and covering his face, he headed for the house.

He'd figured out the timings of the camera sweeps, knowing when best to approach. It didn't take long for him to get to the side of the house, where he paused in a corner, waiting for one of the cameras to pass. Going to the drainpipe, he shimmied up effortlessly, onto the roof. Up here, he was clear of prying eyes, at least until he found a way inside. He had seen he had it in the form of a skylight right above the office.

He made his way silently to the skylight, having a quick look at it. Sure enough, it was wired to the alarm. Fortunately it wasn't an especially modern system. The Wind Ninja Academy ensured its students were kept up to date on updates to security measures, but being sealed in the Nexus Prism for a decade kind of kept Dane from being able to do much homework on the matter. Using the highly-sophisticated tool of a length of foil and some blu-tack, he quickly broke the connecting wires. When he opened the skylight, the alarm believed it was still closed. Dane caught sight of his target, hunched over the desk, reading a whole bunch of leaflets and checking a computer. Research, as an auctioneer he needed to know everything he could about the lots he would be overseeing. Dane grabbed the edge of the skylight and slowly flipped over, before dropping down quietly behind him. The man didn't seem to move, perfect! In a quick motion, Dane grabbed him, forcing him over the desk and planting an elbow in the back of his skull. The man struggled for a moment.

"Hold still!" Dane warned him. "Keep nice and quiet, I'm out of here in a few minutes. Make a noise, things get ugly. Understand?"

"Take whatever you want!" He rushed out in a desperate whisper. "There's...there's some money in the safe, a little jewellery too! The combination is 03-19-03, just please, take what you want and go! Just don't hurt my family!"

Dane felt sick to his stomach. This man was no monster, he wasn't anything...he was doing everything right, his only concern was for the man that had broken into his house and could potentially harm his family. He was trying to bargain, to get Dane out of there as quickly as he could. It was the most natural instinct in the world. He didn't care about his possessions when there was someone in his home with his family. Dane drove his elbow more forcefully into the back of his skull, triggering a nerve point that prevented him moving. The man lost all feeling in his arms and legs. He couldn't fight back, even if he wanted to.

"I'm not here for the money!" Dane whispered to him. "I'm here to talk about the race track."

"The...the race track?" He asked. "It's up for auction tomorrow."

"Yes, the thing is, there's someone that wants to buy it. He just doesn't fancy paying too much for it." Dane told him. "You'll see a big guy in a suit; you'll know him when you see him. Keep your eye on him and when he makes the bid, under half a bil...you know what to do. Do we understand each other?"

The man just nodded, at which Dane reached for a carriage clock, putting it in front of his face.

"It's seven o'clock now. You don't move before that hand hits ten past." Dane told him. It was a moot point really; it would take at least four minutes for the feeling to return to his arms and legs, more than enough time for Dane to get out. Within ten minutes he'd be nowhere near the house. "Remember, look for the bid. If you don't...trust me, the guy they wanted to send won't be as considerate to your family."

With that, Dane released him. Heading for the skylight, with the assistance of a little ninja-streak, he leapt out of the skylight, snatched up the foil so there was nothing left, and stopped in an alley a few blocks from the house. He doubled over and started to catch his breath.

"Man, it sucks getting old." He commented, before heading back towards his hotel. He was sickened by what he had just done. Although he had no intention of harming the auctioneer or his family, he sure as hell didn't know that. The man must have been terrified, exactly how Dane felt when Galvanax had attacked his farm. Although it was the only thing he could think of to get the information he needed from Benny, he was starting to wonder how low he had to sink.

Back over at the camp, things were starting to go well. The fire was burning away nicely, the food was being passed around, and the students were having a great time. Levi had brought his guitar with him for the rather inevitable campfire singing. While the kids didn't get quite as star-struck around Levi anymore, having seen him teaching their classes each day for months, there was still something rather cool about having an international recording artist giving a free performance at their camp.

The Rangers were all huddled together on one edge of the fire, enjoying a little moment of relaxation. Although they still had to worry about Rygore coming back, they were in that all-too-familiar and uncomfortable position of there not really being anything they could do until he did. Sarah quickly explained her conversation with Victor and Monty to the others, letting them know that if they did need to act then at least they would possibly get a window of opportunity to slip away.

"I don't know what's scarier, that Rygore guy coming back or the fact our plan revolves relying on Victor and Monty." Calvin replied.

"Hey, that's not fair; they've come through for us in the past." Sarah reminded him. "But uh...if they ask, Rygore's an elephant."

"What?" Hayley asked.

"I...kind of told Victor that he was an elephant." Sarah responded. The others just stared at her. "What? I'd never have heard the end of it if I told him he was right about something."

She just shuddered at the thought.

"So, what do we do when he does come back?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah, who'd have thought it would be so hard to fight a guy who literally has no idea what he's doing?" Preston asked. "We've faced some weird stuff but that die thing? That takes the cake! We should be able to take that guy apart!"

"I know that going steaming in without a plan shouldn't really work, but I get the feeling he's strong enough to get away with it." Sarah replied. "Not to mention he's probably practiced each of his plans a lot."

"That's a good thought Sarah, just because he doesn't know what plan he's using doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have one." Brody said, stroking his chin. "I'm normally pretty good at figuring out roughly what the other guy's plan is but as soon as we start to figure it out he just rolls that die and comes up with another one."

"Well...how about we draw out his attacks?" Calvin asked. "I mean, we don't have his D&D sheet or whatever it is he has all that stuff written down on, but maybe if we see what attack corresponds to which face of the die we can get at least some advanced warning."

"But that just means we have to survive at least six attacks." Sarah reminded him. "Presuming he doesn't use multiple tables or...I cannot believe I am seriously talking about tables and die rolls when discussing how to defeat a monster!"

"Still, it's the best idea we have so far." Brody said with a shrug.

"Maybe not!" Preston said as something occurred to him. "Guys, I think I have an idea how we can tweak the odds."


	17. A Failure To Communicate

The new day began on the Warrior Dome, and Rygore was preparing to engage the Rangers again. Cosmo sat watching as he rolled his die again and again, picking out equipment and weapons from a staggering display that he had unpacked from his baggage. She started rubbing his temples as he tried to get some respite from his headache. Wrench came in, carrying a tablet with him.

"Lunatics...I am surrounded by complete lunatics." He said as he gestured to him.

"Is he still deciding what he's going to do?" Wrench asked.

"Oh, it's better than that, he creates a list of attacks...but he randomly generates THAT with die rolls!" Cosmo told him. He pointed to where Rygore was rolling his die, before looking to a table.

"He picks his attacks from a table?" Wrench asked.

"Oh, it's better than that, this roll only determines which list of lists that he chooses from. He then needs to roll on that to determine which list from THAT he rolls on next!" Cosmo responded. He just let out a sigh. "Have you found out anything about what Badonna and Odious are up to?"

"I've not got anything yet." Wrench admitted.

"Alright, I'm ready!" Rygore declared as he grabbed his kit bag and tied off the draw string. "Before the day is out, the Rangers will wish they'd never heard of..."

"NO!" Wrench and Cosmo rushed out in a panic.

"THE GALACTIC NINJAS!" They all chorused, appearing as though from nowhere and posing. Mercifully this time there was no explosion. Cosmo just looked up to him.

"Yes...well...that's good." Cosmo sighed, relieved that there was no more destruction as the others disappeared once more. "I'll just get take you to the teleporter..."

"No need for that!" Rygore replied. "NINJA VANISH!"

He threw down a bomb, which went off, the explosion ripping through the Executive Lounge. Cosmo and Wrench just stood, covered in soot, staring at the destruction left behind. Cosmo just spluttered.

"I really...REALLY...hate those guys!" He muttered.

"I'll get the cleaners." Wrench answered, heading off to find some kudabots.

Down in the camp, the students were having a great time. The Summer Cove High camping trip was never intended as much of an activity. When they only had two chaperones, the teachers didn't really have the staffing required to safely oversee activities like mountaineering or canoeing. Anything more ambitious than a nature walk was really just asking for students to get lost or hurt and the inevitable lawsuits that would follow.

The real intention of the trip was just to give the kids one weekend away from all the pressures and decisions and tests they would soon have to take. At this point in their lives, they'd all be making some pretty huge decisions very soon and most of them were already revising hard for exams. Everyone was painfully aware that for some of them, sadly, this would be one of the few times they'd have left to just be kids and get them away from everything that was putting a lot of pressure on them at this stage of their lives.

Brody was still finding it a little wearing that Emma was constantly badgering him for more lessons, and so in a desperate attempt to not spend too much time alone with her, he'd hastily told her that they were all going to practice. She seemed to reluctant, but was a lot more receptive when he framed it positively, telling her he thought she was ready to practice along with some slightly more experienced students of his. The Rangers, along with Emma and Sandy had found a clearing where they wouldn't be disturbed for their lessons. Even Emma joined in as Brody took them through some basics, and after warming up and running some kata to practice a few moves that he intended to go over that day, he once again got them to pair up for one-step sparring.

He wandered among them, giving them each different move sets to practice and switching it up when they seemed to be getting the hang of it. Preston was working with Sandy, letting her practice a simple take-down manoeuvre. Brody watched as she evaded Preston's low-speed attack, grabbing his arm and starting to twist it.

"OK, OK, that's good, but..." He started to say, stepping in. "You want to try it a little more like this. Get in nice and close, nice and tight, so your hip is in his, and..."

"Uh...Brody?" Preston said to him. Brody just stared at him. "You uh..."

He gestured to his mouth. Brody looked for a moment; before it dawned on him he was facing Preston. Sandy was behind him, which meant she couldn't see his face.

"Oh, right." Brody replied. He and Preston turned on the spot so he could face her. "Sorry Sandy. As I was saying, once you catch the arm, step right in like this, nice and close, so your hip is in his, then when you force him back, his own bodyweight does the work and..."

He twisted sharply, at which Preston went over to the ground. He smiled up from the ground.

"You do it like that, you have all the leverage and the other guy's size counts for nothing." He told her. "Think you've got it?"

"I think so." Sandy answered.

"Well, let's see it then." Brody said, taking up position. Sandy adopted a guard. "Alright, I'm coming in, just deflect the punch, grab the arm, put your hip into mine and..."

Brody was dumped on the ground, smiling.

"There, that's it!" He complimented her. He got back to his feet quickly. Just then, they heard a loud noise, followed by a pained gasp. They turned around in time to see Emma with her hands over her face, while Calvin was on his knees; holding is crotch, with a pale, sick look on his face.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" She rushed out.

"Did I do something terrible to you in a past life?" He wheezed as they all gathered around him.

"Believe me, you got off lightly. One time, she broke my fingers when she tried to help me with her bag on the train." Sandy told them.

"Can you not do this?" Emma grumbled, clearly still upset as she helped Calvin somewhere he could get a seat to get his breath back.

"Oh, come on, we've all made a few mistakes that hurt people, especially doing stuff like this." Hayley replied. "Sarah, remember that time you almost broke my nose on our first lesson?"

"It's just as well Hayley's my best friend." Sarah chuckled. "She was NOT happy about that!"

"OK, I get it, I'm clumsy!" Emma muttered, looking at Sandy. "But I don't like you making fun of me in front of our friends about it."

Just then, the Rangers' Ninja Comms all bleeped. Brody and the others looked around each other.

"Uh...that was uh..."

"You know, I think it's time for um...Emma isn't it time for your medication?" Sandy asked.

"My what?" She asked, at which Sandy raised her eyebrows. They already knew who the Rangers were, but so far Emma had said they weren't ready to let them know that Sandy was the Green Ranger. It would be a little awkward to explain why they were breaking into the Romero Farm, and probably wouldn't do much to help them trust them. "Oh...OH! That's right, my medication!"

"She has these pills she has to take, really regularly, lots of water and..." Sandy rambled as Emma hit her. "Thanks for the lesson!"

As they left, Emma hit her again.

"Medication?" She asked. "Great, now they think I'm some kind of psycho!"

"Yeah, because your behaviour around them is REAL normal right now." Sandy answered sarcastically.

The Rangers watched them go, waiting until they were out of earshot.

"That was way too close!" Brody said as he finally answered the Ninja Comm. "Sorry about the wait Mick, what is it?"

"Rygore's back, and he's close." Mick told them. "The scanners picked him up a few hundred meters to the south. Levi will meet you there."

"OK, thanks Mick." Brody replied as they all lined up. "You ready guys? It's MORPHIN' TIME!"

Elsewhere in the woods, Levi followed the co-ordinates on his Ninja-Comm, tracking the last known whereabouts of Rygore's energy signature. He had already morphed, knowing he was likely in for a tough fight. As he arrived, finding no one in sight and no sounds of a disturbance anywhere, he figured he must have been the first on the scene. He had a quick look around.

"Wow, I would never have believed it'd be this hard to find a rhino walking around." He commented. "Hello? Rygore?"

He didn't get an answer. He started to pace a little, straining his eyes to see through the trees.

"You know, on a game show about fighting I believe there's meant to be some...you know...fighting at some point?" He taunted him. Still there was no answer. "Ollie Ollie oxen free?"

He let out an exasperated sigh.

"OK, I never thought a Ranger battle could be this..." He was suddenly struck from an unseen direction, crashing through several trees before he finally came to rest. He pulled himself up painfully. "...boring!"

"Boring am I? Well, you won't think I'm boring for long! Soon you'll regret the day you ever heard of the Galactic Ninjas!"

He struck a pose as Levi finally steadied himself. He beckoned him forward.

"OK, how about we get on with this?" He asked. Rygore produced his die. "Oh great, we have to go through this again?"

He threw the die, which came up with a 5. He cackled.

"Oh, looks like I have to get up close and personal this time!" He said as he reached into his bag. "SAI!"

"Whatever!" Levi responded, getting his Rockstorm Blaster ready. "Come on!"

Emma and Sandy had left the others, but stopped short of the camp. Emma looked to her sister.

"OK, they can't have gone far." Emma told her. "Are you ready for this?"

"I...I think so." Sandy said, taking a deep breath. "The last couple of times haven't gone so well."

"Yeah, well...now you've had some lessons!" Emma told her.

"Yeah, ONE from Brody, the rest have been from you!" She reminded her. "No offence but that doesn't instil a whole lot of confidence!"

"Well...the Power Star wouldn't have chosen you if you didn't have what it takes!" Emma reminded her. Sandy just looked at her sceptically.

"You know, you keep saying things like that." She quipped sarcastically. "One of these days you're going to have to show me this rule book that says all this stuff."

"Sandy, you can do this. You know you can do pretty much anything you set your mind to." Emma encouraged her. "It's why...It's why I asked you to do this in the first place. It's why you're my hero."

"Well, we know what YOUR super power is." Sandy grumbled as she put her Power Star into her morpher. "Emotional blackmail!"

Back at the site of the battle, Levi and Rygore traded blows as best they could. Rygore was immensely strong, and startlingly quick with it. His skill was undeniable, and Levi could see why he was able to brag about destroying whole planets. Even without the chaos of his die rolls he was among the more powerful warriors Levi had faced.

By the time the others arrived, Levi was struggling to stay on his feet, and his suit was smoking from numerous scorch marks.

"Levi, are you alright?" Hayley asked him.

"I've never believed in trophy hunting, I've always believed you only hunt for the pot." Levi told her. "But for this guy's hide I'd make an exception!"

"We're all here now bro." Brody told him. The Rangers rushed towards him, at which Rygore defended himself. Now the whole team was there, he was having some more difficulty, and while he blocked one, another could strike. He staggered and lurched one way to the other trying to get a telling blow on the Rangers. He ended up throwing his sai at Calvin and Sarah, forcing them both to duck.

"I can see this plan's run its course." He called out, picking up his die. He threw it out, where it started to roll.

"Alright guys, defensive positions." Brody instructed them. "We don't know what we're up against next."

"Levi, what number did he throw last time?" Preston asked him.

"Five." Levi informed him. "But what are the chances of him rolling the same number twice in a row?"

"One in thirty six." Sarah answered.

"Really wasn't looking for an answer." Levi responded. However, this time instead it came up a two. "Alight, he threw that in the last battle didn't he? Wasn't that the kettle thing?"

"No, it was the exploding jacks." Hayley replied.

"I was sure it was the kettle." Levi responded. They all watched as he pulled out a huge hammer, running straight for them. He swung it for them, most of them being able to duck, but Hayley stumbled just a little, taking the hit. Instead of being knocked over though, she just stopped dead where she was, long enough for him to catch her with his back swing.

"Ha! How do you like my freeze hammer?" He asked. "One of my most powerful attacks! One more hit and the White Ranger is finished!"

"Everyone protect Hayley!" Brody called out. "Keep your distance; we can't afford to let him get us with that thing. Ranged attacks only!"

They formed up their bows, raining energy arrows in towards him. Rygore summoned up all his strength, storming straight through them. The Rangers lay dazed on the ground.

"OK, let me just say, I am officially over this guy!" Calvin roared. Rygore patted his freeze hammer against his hand.

"Wow, this is really effective! I don't think I'll need another roll of the die!" He teased them.

"Preston, you said you had an idea. Now would be a really good time." Levi called out.

"My idea involves his die!" Preston told him. "We need to force him to roll again!"

"Preston, in case you hadn't noticed, he's kind of winning right now!" Hayley complained. "Why would he roll again when he's winning?"

"He only seems to abandon a plan once it stops working." Brody told them. "We need to get him to give up that hammer."

"Oh, that should be easy!" Sarah replied. "OK, how about we surround him, we come at him from all sides, whichever one of us gets to him first..."

Just then, Rygore staggered as the Green Ranger launched herself onto his back, riding him as he tried to throw her off. She stabbed downward with her sword, trying desperately to pierce his hide while he tried in vain to swing his hammer to hit her, unable to reach.

"Or...we could do that!" Calvin stated.

"Guys, disarm him!" Brody ordered. "Aim for his hands!"

"We might hit her!" Preston pointed out.

"Aim REALLY CAREFULLY for his hands!" Brody clarified. The team all took aim, firing at his hand, sending the Freeze Hammer spinning from his grip. Brody rushed over, picking it up, before snapping it across his knee before he could get it back.

"GET OFF ME!" Rygore screamed as the Green Ranger clung onto him. Realising he had lost his weapon; he looked around for his die. Preston found it, picking it up and clutching onto it. Rygore let out a hellish roar, running straight for him, bowling him over and knocking the die from his hands. Finally dislodging the Green Ranger from his back, he started looking around for it.

"Where is it, where is it?" He asked. "Five...the sai? OK then!"

He ran towards a tree, where his sai had embedded in the wood. He pulled them out, twirling them as he came at the Rangers.

"Alright, we lucked out, we've seen this before!" Brody told them. "Everyone, surround him!"

The Rangers all surrounded him, swinging for him where they could, avoiding his attacks in return. Hayley noticed that the Green Ranger wasn't attacking. She was just standing back.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked. The Green Ranger just continued to stare. "Are you helping us or not?"

The Green Ranger just stared at them, as though not knowing what to do. Sandy could see that the White Ranger was beckoning her into the fight, but to do what? She'd already fouled up the Ranger's plans on a couple of occasions just because she had no idea what to do. She had only basic training...if it could even be called that. Emma had given her some lessons based on movies, some books her birth mom had given her and what Brody had taught her, but nowhere near enough for her to get in the middle of a team that knew what they were doing.

Other Rangers looked to her when they got a chance, also beckoning her to do something, but she didn't know what. Those damned helmets might keep their skulls intact, but with the tinted visors concealing their identities, they also concealed their faces, which meant she had no idea what they were saying. Eventually Sarah knocked one sai from his hand, while Levi knocked away the other. Rygore had to weather through some blows as he ran for his die again.

"Come on, come on..." He rolled it, and let out a yell. "FIVE? Come on!"

He ran around, scrambling to pick up his sai, but the Rangers saw him coming, launching into hard attacks as he came. In quick succession Levi hit him with a lightning strike, followed by five Steel Slashes. Rygore fell to his knees as he felt his strength leaving him.

"I don't understand, how could this happen?" He gasped as he struggled for breath. "My die has never failed me before!"

"Oh that, that's easy!" Preston replied as he waved his magic wand in the air. "Especially if you load the die."

"Alright, I've had it with this guy!" Brody called out, powering up into the Lion Fire Armour. "Lion Fire, FINAL STRIKE!"

Rygore could only watch as Brody brought down his blade, destroying him utterly in a huge explosion. The Rangers all stood, surveying their handiwork.

"Show's over, ninjas win!" Brody declared proudly.

"Uh...guys...are we posing?" Sarah asked. They all looked around, realising that they were.

"We...don't do this all the time do we?" Hayley asked. "We don't look like those Galactic Ninjas do we?"

"Maybe we should not do this again." Calvin suggested. They all nodded their heads, before looking around, seeing the Green Ranger standing a little way off. Preston started to approach. Remembering the last time, he drove his sword into the ground, approaching her unarmed.

"Hey, thanks for the help!" He said to her as he approached. Sandy watched him coming for him, and started feeling her stomach churning up. She wished she could tell what Preston was saying. She didn't doubt he meant her no harm, and the fact he gave up his sword could only mean that he thought she ran off the last time because she thought he was going to attack her. Of all the things Sandy could imagine the last thing was that Preston would wilfully do her or anyone any harm.

She wished she could just tell them who she was, to let them know why she couldn't speak with them, but she had promised Emma that she wouldn't tell them just yet. As much as she hated the thought that she was lying to Preston, and that he didn't have any idea why she kept running away from them, she couldn't bring herself to betray a promise to her sister. Emma might be clumsy, she might be aggravating, she might even have unwittingly ended up getting her stuck with a power and responsibility she didn't know she was worthy of, but she loved Emma too much to break her promise. A beam came down, striking the spot where Rygore fell, causing enough of a distraction for Sandy to run. She knew that the one thing she definitely couldn't help with was a Zord battle. As far as she knew she didn't have a Zord, and if she did she had no idea how she would call it.

"Hey, come back!" Preston called out as she ran away.

"Presto, we'll have to deal with her later." Sarah told him. "Right now, we've got some REALLY big game to hunt!"


	18. Dane's Deal

It was mid-afternoon by the time Dane returned to the coffee shop. He didn't think it was worth going too early. After all, Benny would no doubt want to see if his message had indeed created the desired effect and the auctioneer would play ball with him. The fact that as he entered Benny, Bob and a couple of the others were clinking glasses and sipping champagne clued him in on the fact that the auctioneer had indeed valued his safety over a fair auction.

"There he is, the man of the hour!" Benny declared as Dane walked in. "Come, come and have a seat! Bob, pour him a glass."

Dane could see the sour expression on Bob's face as he reached for the bottle. He and the other men still bore the unmistakable bruises from their earlier altercation with Dane. Dane just held a hand up.

"I'm fine thanks." He answered.

"Surely you can stay for a few glasses of…"

"I'd really prefer not to." Dane interrupted him. "I trust things went well?"

"You are now looking at the new owner of a race track!" Benny declared proudly as he held up some paperwork, which Dane presumed were the title deeds. He had no idea what they wanted with it, presumably it would be a much larger money laundering front than the café, but he really didn't want to dwell too much on what he might have done to enhance their grip on the city. He definitely didn't want to think about what he had done to the poor auctioneer. The man wasn't a threat to anyone as far as Dane knew. He was just a man trying to do right by his family, to give them a good life and do as good a job as he could. It wasn't his fault that Benny didn't want to pay a fair price for the property and was willing to use the threat of violence to his family to get his way.

As much as Dane knew he had no intention of harming them, he knew all too well the effect his visit had to have. Fear and intimidation were some of the most effective weapons in the ninja's arsenal. Of course, he'd always been trained to use them on those that deserved it. He would never have imagined using his skills to help a criminal.

"Hey, you heard the boss, sit your ass down." Bob told him, patting a seat next to him. "Show some respect."

"Sorry, I'm a little picky about who I spend time with." Dane said rather abruptly. "Now, I delivered on my part of the bargain, I'm here for what we agreed."

"Are you sure? I mean, that job you pulled was just beautiful. No noise, no mess, just his word for anything? None of my guys could have done that." Benny told him. He pulled a large stack of bills from his pocket and put it down on the table. "If you were open to doing a few more jobs, it could be quite profitable."

"No thank you. This was a one-time deal." Dane responded. "Now, that information?"

"Hey, you just mind who you're talking to!" Bob piped up. "The boss is being really generous here. Not too many guys get to come in here and cause the kind of trouble you did and walk out again, never mind with a job offer. If you're smart, you'll take the money."

Dane picked up the cash, before tossing it into the air. He knew this would get everyone's attention. There had to be thousands of dollars on the table and he quite literally threw it back in their faces.

"I don't want your money!" Dane said in a calm, cool voice as he analysed the situation, his eyes flicking between everyone at the table. He was quickly ascertaining who was armed, where their weapons were, how long it would take them to get to them, how long it would take them to get up from the table…all the time he was planning his own moves if he needed to. "Now, I delivered my part of the bargain. I expect you to do the same."

Just as he'd predicted, one of the gangsters made a move for a weapon, no doubt thinking he'd not be noticed. Dane, however, caught the movement from the corner of his eye. In a move so fast it was barely seen, he had lashed out, knocking the man unconscious with barely any noticeable effort. In quick succession, the others tried to move, but were struck down like gnats.

Dane was shocked, however, when Benny made his move. He'd believed him to be trapped behind the table, but with a massive yell, he picked up the table, driving it straight for Dane, an impressive feat since it was bolted to the floor! Dane had believed it would prevent Benny making a move past his men, but he was caught off-guard. He'd underestimated Benny and it had cost him pretty badly.

He was rushed across the room, driven into the wall, where Benny ditched the table and grabbed onto him. In the confined space of the café, the huge man was difficult to avoid, seeming like he was everywhere at once. Dane lucked out though as Benny threw him across the room, giving him much needed space. Although he had to peel himself off the floor and struggle to regain his breath. His grip was incredible, and his girth, much as Dane had suspected, concealed a hell of a lot of muscle. If Benny had kept his hands on him, Dane was pretty certain he was done for!

Even striking back at Benny was daunting. When he hit him, it felt like he was striking a wall! It was pretty clear Benny had worked his way through the ranks and didn't command the respect of his men for nothing! Dane ducked under a haymaker that was about to crush his skull and in an act of desperation hit out with a technique that he had always hoped he'd never have to use.

Benny collapsed to the floor, clutching at his chest as Dane backed away from him breathlessly. He saw Benny looking up at him with panic-stricken eyes.

"You feel that? That tightness? The discomfort? Find it hard to breathe?" Dane asked him. "In about fifteen seconds you'll go into cardiac arrest unless I stop you. Now, are you going to tell me what I want to know?"

Benny nodded his head, unable to speak as he struggled with every breath. Dane hoisted him backwards, before with another couple of nerve points, he quickly released the pressure. Benny gasped and gulped air greedily as he looked to Dane.

"Now, about what we were talking about?" Dane asked him.

"You…you move just like her." Benny panted as he propped himself up, loosening off the collar of his shirt. Dane just looked to him curiously. "Mariko…she did some work for me."

"Work?" Dane asked. His face twisted into a snarl and he raised his hand in a threatening manner. "Don't lie to me!"

"I'm…I'm not lying I swear!" Benny rushed out. "She was living in the apartment above the café, at first she never had anything to do with us, but eventually she came to us and offered to help us with a few jobs that required some subtlety."

"Mariko would NEVER have anything to do with the likes of you!" Dane spat as he got into Benny's face. "She was a good person…"

"Even good people get desperate!" Benny replied. "Turns out there isn't much work out there for a single mother without a college diploma! Nothing that pays anything like what it takes to raise a kid."

Dane loosened off his grip a little. Benny had mentioned the kid. Mariko had indeed had the baby. He doubted Benny would lie to him right now, he certainly had nothing to gain from doing so. As far as he knew, Dane would carry out his threat to kill him if he did. Dane was not going to be too quick to correct him on that mistake. Terror was a powerful motivator, and it was clear it had been a LONG time since Benny had been this afraid.

"The kid?" Dane asked.

"Yeah, a kid, she had a daughter. She was a baby when I knew her…sometimes I kept an eye on her while Mariko went out and did some work." Benny told him. "She refused to do any wet work, insisted she wouldn't hurt anyone but as far as B&E goes…she was the best I've ever seen. There was nowhere she couldn't get into."

"So what happened to her? Where is she now?" Dane asked him. "If you did anything to her…"

"I never touched her I swear!" Benny protested. "One day, she came to me, she needed a lot of money, she'd done so much for us I couldn't refuse. After that, she left town."

"Where did she go?" Dane asked him. "If you want to see another sunrise…"

"She was sick!" Benny rushed out. "Real sick, she needed…she needed the money for some fancy hospital out in Stone Canyon."

"Sick?" Dane asked. "What do you mean sick?" Benny's eyes took on a different look, one that Dane was a little surprised to see.

"The kind of sick…people normally don't get better from." Benny said sadly. "The treatment she was going for was experimental. I fronted her the money and sent her to Stone Canyon. That was the last I heard of her."

"You let her go on her own?" Dane asked. "What happened?"

"I don't know what happened after that, I swear." Benny told him.

"What was the name of the hospital?" Dane asked him. "Tell me!"

"I…I don't remember! It was years ago!" Benny protested. "All I know is it was run by some fancy group that's into everything, cutting edge research…Promise or Promenade or…something like that…"

"Promethea?" Dane asked him. Benny just nodded.

"Yeah, that was it." He responded. "The woman that offered the treatment, she's always on the TV, some kind of super genius or something."

"A hospital that was run by Promethea doing experimental treatments." Dane summarised. "Alright, but just know if you're lying about this…"

"I get it." Benny gulped. Dane just got up and started to walk towards the door. She stopped and paused in the doorway. He looked back at him.

"You said she had a daughter." Dane reminded him. Benny just nodded. "What was her name?"

"Mariko named her Angela." Benny informed her. Dane smiled a little. It was his mother's name. Mariko had given her daughter at least one thing from her father.

"One more thing. The auctioneer." Dane told him. "You're done with him, understood? He and his family are off-limits from now on."

Benny just nodded his head in understanding. Dane walked out of the café, getting a little way down the street, before steadying himself on the wall as he had a little dizzy turn. She clutched his head with his free hand.

"Damn he hits hard." Dane muttered. "You're getting careless Romero."

Back at the camp, the Rangers were just getting back after the battle with Rygore. It had taken a couple of Megazords to do it, but now they knew that they had one less Galactic Ninja to worry about.

It was already starting to get late when they slipped back into camp. Calvin had a quick glance around the campfire, making sure they hadn't missed all the best of the treats on offer.

"Well, I for one am going to make sure that we haven't missed all the marshmallows." He told them. "Want me to get you some Hayley?"

"To be honest, I'm a little tired. I really don't want a sugar-rush keeping me up." Hayley replied, giving him a little peck on the cheek. "You have fun though, alright?"

"Speaking of, I've got a little energy to burn so I'm going to see if Emma's up for another quick lesson." Brody told them. They all looked to him a little curiously. "What?"

"Really?" Levi asked. "I thought you were complaining about her always hanging around like your shadow."

"I don't know, it was a little much at first, but I think she's kind of growing on me." Brody replied. "It's kind of hard not to be a little jazzed about having a student that's hyped about lessons as she is."

"Are you sure it's the lesson's she's into?" Hayley teased him. "I mean, you're not Calvin but…unless you haven't noticed, you're kind of a hottie."

"What? No, I'm sure it's nothing like that! She just really likes martial arts!" Brody said, waving it off.

"Brody, I don't think anyone's THAT into martial arts." Hayley answered. "Besides, she does seem to single you out for all the attention."

"Because I'm the sensei?" Brody replied.

"Hayley, will you quit shipping people?" Sarah asked her. She gestured between herself and Preston. "I mean, no offence but it's not like you're exactly batting a thousand on that front."

"I still stand by my assessment that you two were adorable." Hayley answered in a little bit of a huff.

"Yeah, it still didn't work out though did it?" Preston taunted her. "Hey, I see Sandy over there, I'm going to see if she wants some cocoa. Catch you guys in a bit?"

"Sure thing Presto!" Sarah replied as he left.

"I think I should really touch base with Principal Hastings." Levi said as he started to head off. "I know she's on board with what we do here, but even I have to admit I've been kind of pushing my luck on the whole chaperone thing this weekend. I think she might appreciate a little time where she doesn't have to be the warden."

"I suppose I'm going to go and make sure Calvin doesn't stuff himself too full of sugar!" Hayley sighed. "I told him I'd sit next to him on the bus and I am not listening to him snoring all the way home. If he has too much sugar, there's no way he's getting any sleep tonight."

As they all parted, Sarah made her way to the edge of the lake, picking up some stones. The Rangers had undoubtedly been worried about the potential for the battle to spill over into the camp, but it looked like they had managed to keep everyone safe, and more importantly keep their identities secret.

Rygore had indeed been strong, one of the most powerful monsters Sarah could ever remember. She hated to dwell on a battle when they were victorious, but she did have a nagging thought in the back of her mind. They still didn't know how many Galactic Ninjas there were. If there were, for instance, five or six, then taking down two of them would be something to be excited about. She didn't think that there were only two, that would be far too much to hope for! Of course if there were a couple of hundred then two was only a drop in the ocean. She also had to worry about the fact that Rygore was just one of them. If someone as powerful as him was just one member, then what did that say about the others? Were there ones more powerful than him?

She found her thoughts brought back to the present as a stone skipped seven or eight times in front of her. She looked around to see Victor standing next to her.

"So, you guys did it again huh?" He asked.

"Yeah, we did." She responded, throwing another stone, which skipped only three times. "We managed to keep it out of the camp fortunately."

"That would definitely have put a dampener on things." Victor agreed, skipping another stone. He snapped his fingers as he got a seven skipper. "It was quite a show."

"You…you saw that?" She asked him. He just looked to her and sighed.

"The trees aren't THAT tall." He reminded her. "A hundred and fifty foot rhino and a couple of gigantic robots is kind of hard to miss, even if they are a mile or two away."

"Well, glad you enjoyed the show." She responded, before thinking about something. "But, uh…it was an elephant."

"Really? Rather funny looking elephant." He said, stroking his chin. "I mean, don't elephants normally have trunks?"

"Uh, well…"

"And last time I checked, they don't have horns like that…their tusks go more like this." He indicated with his fingers tusks coming from the side of his face.

"Yeah, well…monsters do look a little odd and…"

"Go on, go ahead and say it!" He beckoned her, cupping his ear with his hand.

"Victor, it could have been…"

"Go on!" He continued with a big smirk. "You know I'm not going to leave this alone until you say it."

Sarah just planted her face into her hands and let out a long scream.

"There…there was a Rhino out here." She responded. "But it wasn't your Summer Cove…"

"That's all I wanted to hear!" He said with a satisfied smirk as he walked away. Sarah just sighed.

"I am never going to live this down." She remarked, throwing a stone which plunged straight through the surface without even one skip. "Son of a bitch."

Elsewhere in the camp, Sandy had managed to slip away from the group, finding some time to be by herself. She just sat by the lake, staring up into the sky.

She had always loved superheroes, and yes, she had even dreamed of being one on occasion. With her biological parents dying so young, she did find a certain affinity for some of the classic superheroes. Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent…something of a running theme in superhero fiction was the loss of parents or loved ones as an origin story. For most of them it was their feelings of loss or vengeance or guilt that inspired them to become heroes. She couldn't claim the same thing for herself.

She also felt some affinity with those superheroes that were presented as having real obstacles or barriers to overcome. The idea that anyone could be a hero regardless of their situation as long as they were willing to do what was right when it mattered. Matt Murdock was blind. Professor Xavier was paraplegic. For her, she did have a bit of a soft spot for Clint Barton. While not one of the more popular or mainstream Avengers, in the comics at least, not the movies, he was deaf. Whenever she felt frustrated or isolated because she was different, she always liked to remind herself that he was too. Unfortunately, she was finding the reality of being a superhero was not up to her expectations.

She'd now been involved in a few Ranger battles, and so far the only thing she had done consistently was mess up. She didn't have much in the way of knowledge, only what Emma had managed to teach her from stuff her birth mom had left her and what she relayed from training with Brody, but that hardly made her an expert as she was quickly finding out.

There was also the matter of the team itself. They couldn't communicate with her. More than once she'd found herself either getting in the way, being in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time because she couldn't figure out what they wanted to do. She wished she could do more to help, but right now, she wondered why the Nexus Prism had chosen her at all. She couldn't fight as well as the Rangers, she wasn't smart like Sarah or Preston...why would it choose her?

She felt a tap on the shoulder and looked around, seeing Preston standing over her, smiling.

"Mind if I sit down?" He asked. She smiled brightly and patted the ground next to her.

"There's plenty of room." She answered him. Preston sat down with her.

"So, there was a monster in the woods after all huh?" He said. She just nodded. "Glad you and your sister got back here safely."

"Yeah, you too." She said. "We got back before you did, I was a little worried you might have got caught up in it all."

"Uh…yeah, we heard all the commotion and kind of…ran away." He said, trying to cover. "We got more than a little turned around and it took us a while to figure out our way back."

She just nodded. Even if she didn't know the truth, she would have been able to see through Preston. One of the things that came from the fact she couldn't hear what people said and spent her time reading their faces for what they had said was that she was well practiced at noticing the subtlest of facial cues from people. She was usually very good at spotting when someone was telling lies because she could tell when their words were forced, awkward or hesitant like they weren't confident in them. Of course, Preston was a whole different level. She didn't need to try too hard to realise when he was stretching the truth, he was a completely horrible and unpractised liar. It was just one of the things she liked about him. He was very straightforward, she always knew what she saw was what was the case with him.

"So, did you not feel like marshmallows?" He asked her. She just shook her head.

"I'm more of an ice-cream kind of girl." She replied.

"Well, I know this absolutely amazing place! I'll take you some time!" He blurted out, before suddenly realising what it must have sounded like. "I mean, if that's something you'd like that is."

"Ice cream sounds great." She responded, before looking up. "Hey, is that a shooting star?"

"You know, I think it is." Preston responded. He felt something on his hand and looked down, seeing Sandy's hand had come to rest on his. She kind of fumbled for a little moment, before taking his hand. He just looked up, smiling.


	19. Dance Card

Monday morning came around and the kids were energised by the camping trip. Thanks to the Rangers managing to keep the battle with Rygore away from the campsite, while there were some scares and some excitement, for the most part the kids had a relaxing and fun time and were now recharged and ready to go.

One thing a lot of people were ignorant of, either because they didn't remember their own school days or because they were of the opinion that things only got worse after High School was that the final years of High School were some of the most stressful and difficult times of anyone's life. There was a lot going on for the kids at that time of their lives.

While the process of physically maturing into adults was something that took place over only a few months to a couple of years and took place some time before they got to the final months and years of High School, there was still a lot of maturing to do and it was a difficult process. For people who had been making decisions about their lives that in the majority of instances would only really have consequences for a few weeks or so they were being asked to make a lot of life-altering decisions within a short period of time. If someone decided to dye their hair or get a piercing and it didn't work out, generally it only took a couple of weeks for that to be reversed and only a few days more for everyone to be distracted by the next "scandal" and forget about it completely. What choices they made with their classes and study patterns would very much dictate years of their lives. Add into that a workload that meant most of them were working the equivalent of 18+ hours a day for most of the week, it was pretty understandable that a lot of kids suffered tremendously and for many it was one of the most difficult and stressful periods of their lives.

Principal Hastings did as much as she could to alleviate that. She knew that exams were just around the corner, and for most of them soon they would be ramping up their study time-tables in preparation for forty five minute to one hour tests that could impact years of their lives and so she liked to give them a little bit of time to enjoy themselves before then, which was why just after the camping trip, there was a school dance, the last major event in the school before the exams, prom and graduation. Some called it a blow-off to get some fun in before the work started, for some, almost a goodbye to their youth, but either way it was the last stop for them before the real work began.

Levi came into Mrs Finch's class, carrying some coffee and pastries. She was on the phone, with a bunch of papers in front of her. By the looks of her face, the call wasn't going well.

"What do you mean you can't…? How the hell…? It's ICE! It's water that's been put in a freezer! How the hell can you not deliver that?" She asked. "And exactly how long do you think it'll take to fix? No, it is not good enough to re-schedule the delivery for two weeks, we're having the dance on Friday! Yes, this is me cancelling the order! Glad we got that straight!"

She hung up and looked to Levi, who was standing back. She smiled at him.

"Now, that is a sight that will always improve my day." She stated.

"Well, the coffee and pastries I figured would be nice since you missed the camping trip." Levi responded as he put the coffee and the pastries down.

"Well, that's nice too." She said with a little wink as he sat down with her. "Well, you're just in time to see my penance. I skipped the camping trip so I have to do this instead."

"You missed a fun trip." Levi told her.

"I missed some excitement too according to the news." She responded with a little smile. Levi had opted to tell her about his identity as the Gold Ranger following his run-in with one of Odious' monsters. He hadn't told them the others' identities, he figured that he owed them the ability to retain their anonymity, but she did know who he was. "Glad you managed to keep that out of the camp."

"The worst thing they kids had to worry about was bugs." Levi assured her.

"Yet, I can't help noticing the others were out there too." She mused. "Almost as if they were already with you…"

"I already said I wouldn't tell you who they were." Levi reminded her.

"I know, but…it's not like I can't speculate and figure it out." She said, taking a sip. "But maybe another time. Right now, I'm busy trying to figure out what we're going to do this close to the dance."

"Well, I'm a chaperone so if you need some help, you could always give me a few tasks." Levi informed her.

"You volunteered for the camping trip AND the dance?" She asked him. He just shrugged.

"It seemed like fun." He responded. She just laughed.

"Oh, it's so obvious you're still in your first year teaching." She chuckled as she shook her head. "Give it a couple of years and you'll be looking for ways to duck as many of these things as you can get away with."

"Well, I don't know about extra work, but I do know I have something a lot of all the other teachers don't." He told her, pulling out his cell phone. "I have a contact list that can pull out just about anything for a function day or night. What? What's the point in being a 'celebrity' if I can't enjoy the perks once in a while?"

"You know, I think we're going to be just fine." She replied, leaning back on her chair. "So, how about if I start guessing which of the students are Rangers you can tell me if I'm right?"

"Let's see about that ice, shall we?" Levi rushed out, dialling his phone. "Rebecca? Yeah, it's Levi…look, I know it's kind of out the way but could you do me a HUGE favour?"

Up on the Warrior Dome, Odious and Badonna met in a quiet room. Although her secret lab had been exposed when Levi escaped, she figured that by now, since she was in command of the ship and it had been so long since it was discovered no one would be paying much attention to it anymore. Badonna found her working on something.

"So, how's it coming?" Badonna asked her. Odious smiled.

"This masterpiece is well on its way to being complete. That idiot Wrench isn't the only one that can make weapons." Odious told her, gesturing to a stand a little way off. "And with two of the Ninja Power Medallions already in our grasp, if the Galactic Ninjas fail, the Rangers will have hand-delivered me one of the most powerful weapons in existence. Win or lose, the Galactic Ninjas will have proven more than worth what I paid."

She put down her power tools and looked to Badonna.

"Speaking of which, have they decided which of them is going next?" Odious asked.

"I actually had a thought about that." Badonna told her, pulling up some images on a screen. Odious just looked at it with a sickened look on her face. She recognised the school, she'd become quite familiar with it in her time posing as Principal Hastings, but it was now decorated with angels and love hearts all over the place.

"Ugh, what is this?" She asked. "Did Hastings hire the world's tackiest interior decorator?"

"It seems the school is having some kind of social function designed to encourage the students to ask each other for romantic encounters." Badonna told her. "And we both know what Venoma's special talent is."

"Interesting, good work Badonna." She replied, sounding impressed. "I can see why Draven kept you around so long."

"I'm just going to go and find Venoma and Wolvermean." She answered. "It shouldn't take me too long to influence the result in our favour."

"I'm sure it won't." Odious replied as she left. "They may be idiots, but they are useful."

Down in the school, the kids were excited for the dance. Those with partners were already making arrangements to make the night memorable, while those without partners were busy trying to arrange dates or alternate plans.

Brody and Sarah were sitting in the canteen during a quiet moment at morning break. Sarah was working on some kind of gadget while Brody looked over some notes.

"OK, so can someone please explain to me how I can read, write and speak Japanese fluently but I still have problems figuring out what an oxymoron is?" Brody asked her. "I mean, seriously English is meant to be my first language so why is this so hard?"

"I guess because it is our first language, they expect us to understand it more." Sarah replied with a shrug. She was bumped from behind by one of the students, who quickly apologised as she was carrying a huge teddy bear towards the parking lot. "Seriously, what is everyone's big deal with this thing?"

"I don't know…I guess they kind of like the idea of the romance of it all." Brody commented. Sarah just sighed.

"You do know that the majority of these couples will probably break up by the time graduation comes and most of them probably won't even see each other, again right?" She asked him.

"Wow, I lived in a space ship full of aliens that only saw me as a potential lunch and even I'm more romantic than that." Brody teased her as he put his book away. "What makes you such a cynic?"

"I just…I don't know, I don't see the point in pretending most of these 'relationships' are more than they are." She said, making the air quotes with her fingers. "Hell, if more than a handful of these couples are still together once they head to college, I'll be seriously surprised."

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Calvin asked as he and Hayley came to the table.

"Sarah's just telling me how none of the couples here will be together once they head to college." Brody informed them.

"Really? Is that what you think?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah, I mean what the hell?" Calvin asked.

"Look, I'm not saying EVERYONE, I mean you guys, you're rock-solid." She sighed. "I just…I guess I have a little trouble believing that anyone that's getting together now only a couple of months before they do their exams and head off to college is going to be together once that happens. I'm just saying…maybe it'd be better just going with some friends or something."

"So, you don't have a date?" Calvin asked her. She just glared at him.

"Yes, but only because I'm not looking for one!" She told him. "I'd much rather just go with you guys than some guy who's going to declare his undying love to me on Friday only to give me the 'we can stay in touch' speech come graduation."

"I think you're taking all this a little seriously Sarah. I mean, I doubt most of these people think they're going to be together forever either." Hayley told her. "How about you Brody, do you have a date?"

"Nah, but only because I really don't feel any of the offers, I got." Brody responded. Everyone at the table did a double-take. "What?"

"Offers?" Calvin asked. "As in…multiple offers? Like more than one?"

"Yeah, I was surprised too. Some girls that never even spoke to me before too." Brody remarked. "It's a little weird actually. Now that I think about it…maybe you have kind of a point Sarah."

"Thank you!" She replied, throwing up her hands. "Seriously, everyone takes this stuff way too seriously. What's wrong with just going yourself or going with friends?"

"Well, I guess nothing." Hayley replied. "Hang on you guys, I just need to go and find Preston, we were working on something together."

"Alright, I'll catch you later." Calvin responded as he watched her go.

"Well, I guess it's nice to know who you're going with." Sarah replied.

Hayley made her way through the halls, looking for Preston. If he wasn't already with them, she figured he was probably by his locker. She found him there, but the way he was standing, staring into the locker made her a little curious. Normally kids only topped by their lockers to put things in or take things out, certainly they didn't tend to hang around for too long. She could hear him muttering away to himself, and curiosity overtook her. She started to creep towards him, using the technique Brody had taught her to keep her footsteps silent as she approached.

As she got close, she could see he had a tablet in his locker, propped up so he could see the screen. He was also doing something with his hands and muttering to himself as he kept checking the video, before winding it back and watching it again.

"Damn it, this is so hard!" He muttered. Just then, he felt a tap on the shoulder and let out a shriek as he jumped almost high enough to hit the ceiling. He clutched his chest as he saw Hayley standing, sniggering behind him.

"Hey Presto, what you doing?" She asked him.

"Oh, Hayley, it's just you." He said, fighting for breath. "Jeez, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

He saw her glancing past him to the locker and moved to close the door.

"I was just…practicing a new card trick." Preston told her. Hayley caught the door, stopping him closing it completely.

"Come on Preston, you're way too smart to know that line only works if you're actually holding cards, right?" She asked him, opening up the locker. She pulled out the tablet and looked at it. It was a YouTube video. "American Sign Language…?"

"Uh, yeah…I was just…um…"

"How to say 'would you like to go to…' Aw Preston, you're learning how to ask Sandy to the dance in sign language?" Hayley asked. He started to turn a little pink and gestured to her to keep it quiet.

"OK, OK, look, Sandy, she's pretty great and I really like her and I thought, maybe she might like to go." Preston told her. "And then I was just thinking about how to ask her and since everyone else is doing cards and candy and stuffed animals and pets…"

"Pets?" Hayley asked.

"Someone came in with a ferret…it's a long story but…" He replied as he just sighed. "I guess I just wanted to show I'm not like the others."

"Preston, that's so sweet!" Hayley gushed as she looked to him.

"Yeah, but…I'm not even sure I should." Preston told her.

"Preston, why ever not?" She asked him.

"Well, for one thing…what about Sarah?" He asked her. "I mean, it wasn't that long ago we were dating."

"I'm not really sure what you two did could be called dating." Hayley responded. "Besides, I just spoke to her and I really don't think she cares too much about who goes to the dance with who."

"I don't know, I just…somehow it doesn't feel right." Preston responded.

"Look, if you feel that strongly about it, why don't you ask her?" Hayley asked as Sarah came along.

"Hey guys, the others wanted me to check what the hold up was." Sarah said as she looked to them. "So, what were you going to ask me?"

"Uh…it's nothing really…"

"Preston was thinking of asking Sandy to the dance, but he didn't know if he should because he was worried how it would make you feel." Hayley interjected, knowing that Preston always had a little trouble in these situations. He looked positively alarmed that she had just blurted that out.

"Uh…"

"Me? You mean because we broke up?" Sarah asked. "Aw, Preston!"

"Look…um…I was…uh…I mean…"

"I just caught him; he was just learning how to sign it to her." Hayley told her. Sarah just put a hand over her heart and pulled an incredible puppy-face.

"Aw, Preston that is so sweet!" She told him. "Look, I appreciate the thought, but what happened between you and me, that's just one of these things. I'm fine with you wanting to go out with other girls."

"Really?" Preston asked.

"Really. We're best buds, you can talk to me about this stuff OK?" Sarah told him. "Now, how about Sandy? Are you going to ask her?"

"I don't know, maybe." Preston sighed. "I'm still not sure how good an idea it is, what if she says no? What if she laughs at me?"

"Then she's the one missing out!" Sarah replied. "Come on, we'll help you find her."

"Uh, do I have a choice in this?" Preston asked.

"Nope!" Hayley replied as she closed over the door, sealing the tablet inside.

In another part of the school, Sandy took a seat in the library, opening up a book to do some reading. She had seen all the kids rushing around trying to get dates for the dance, and she had gone to the one place she could think of that would be empty so that she could be by herself.

She had no interest in the dance, or more accurately she didn't have any interest in the other kids and them asking her to go. She already had someone that she wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure if she could, all thanks to Emma and her stupid promise.

She loved her sister. They'd been together in their foster family since they were both kids, but she definitely drove her crazy with her schemes and ideas. She understood why she was nervous about approaching the Rangers with the fact they knew who they were, she had insisted that they would once she had gotten a little closer to them, fearing that they would reject her in anger over her subterfuge. It didn't make much sense to Sandy to compound the lies and the deception they'd already used with more lies but she had promised Emma and that was something she was quickly starting to regret.

She couldn't deny the fact she liked Preston. They both had a lot in common, and it wasn't just the fact the Nexus Prism chose to give them both Power Stars, something she still didn't really understand. She felt genuinely great around Preston, who after the Game Goblin incident had been nothing but welcoming and kind to her. She did think he was pretty cute too. While others might have thought it a little funny and silly to see someone Preston's age with a taste for waistcoats, bow ties and sometimes even top hats, she kind of liked it.

She really wished she could tell him what she knew, to explain why she had been acting the way she had. She'd even thought once or twice about asking him to the dance. It was a bit of a pipe dream though, how could she ask him to the dance if she couldn't even be honest with him about what she knew? She really hated her sister sometimes. Emma did have a talent for dragging her into one mess after another.

She looked up as she saw the chair next to her being pulled out and someone sat down. She saw Victor sitting next to her holding a necklace.

"Heeey Sandy!" He greeted her. She shuffled just a little bit further away from him on her chair. She hadn't missed the fact that Victor had taken a shine to her. She didn't really know him too well, other than by reputation. Others had talked all about his exploits and his achievements, as well as all the crazy and unbelievable scenes he managed to cause.

"What's up Victor?" She asked him, already dreading the response. Unfortunately, it was exactly what she was dreading.

"The dance is on Friday, and I heard that you don't have a date yet." He began. "Well, today is your lucky day."

"It is?" She asked. He held up the silver necklace for her to see.

"Won't you go to the dance with me?" He asked with a big, bright smile. "Here is a small token of my affection, but you only get to keep it if you say yes."

Sandy was a little taken aback. She didn't really know Victor but from their short conversation already she wasn't sure she wanted to. She just looked back to him.

"Are you trying to bribe me to go to the dance with you?" She asked.

"Of course! It worked on the girl I went with last year!" He responded with a toothy grin. Sandy was not smiling though, she was disgusted!

"Get lost Victor!" She told him. His smile suddenly slipped as he looked to the necklace.

"What? Don't you like it?" He asked her.

"No, I don't like what it represents!" She snapped at him. "You think because you spend money on a girl, she should go out with you?"

"Uh…"

"There's a word for that Victor and I am not one of them!" She yelled, getting a few looks from around the library. Victor started to shrink away a little.

"But…you don't understand…"

"Oh, I understand just fine Victor, you think that girls can be bought? Well if that's what you want, go find someone else!" She growled. "I'd rather go to the dance alone than go with you!"

As she turned from him, she brushed past Preston, Sarah and Hayley who were on their way over to talk to her. Hayley just clapped.

"Nicely done Victor." She commented.

"I…I don't…I thought girls liked presents." He commented.

"Well, maybe some do but offering the present before the first date? It can…kind of be taken the wrong way." Sarah recommended. "A cheap necklace in return for a date is…"

"I think I know what you're saying!" Victor replied, running over to another student who was walking past. "Lori! Lori, wait up!"

"Victor Vincent, the school Casanova in his own mind." Hayley chuckled, shaking her head. "I am so glad Calvin never tried that with me."

"Guys, did you hear that?" Preston asked. "Sandy says she wants to go to the dance alone."

"Uh…that's not exactly what I heard." Hayley assured him.

"Yeah, I think it's just Victor she doesn't want to go with." Sarah added. Preston just shook his head.

"No, this was a dumb idea. I just…I should probably just forget it." Preston muttered to himself. "Thanks for your help but…This just isn't going to work."

"Preston, wait!" Hayley called after him. Sarah just stopped her.

"It's just…part of his process. I think he'll get there eventually." Sarah told her. She saw the way Hayley was looking at her. "What?"

"Weren't you the one against all this dance stuff?" Hayley asked.

"Well…yeah, but it's…it's Sandy and Preston. They're super sweet!" She answered.

"You're a complex person Sarah Thompson, I'll give you that." Hayley remarked. "Come on, we should be getting to class soon."


	20. Love Stings

Lunch time came and the Rangers decided that it would be nice to get out of the school for a little bit. While Sarah had voiced a certain level of cynicism about the whole romance aspect of the school dance, even Calvin and Hayley, the most hard-line romantics and only real couple in the group had to admit the whole thing was getting more than a little overwhelming. Between the decorations and posters and people offering messenger services and suchlike it really was becoming what Sarah had cheerfully referred to as "Valentine's Day without the class." She wasn't far off the mark.

Hayley just giggled as her phone buzzed and she checked her messages.

"What's that?" Calvin asked her.

"Oh, just some other guy asking me if I want to go to the dance." She told him. Calvin just looked at her a little put out. "Don't worry, I tell all of them no. I can't believe there are so many though, it's not like everyone doesn't know we're together...I just want to know how they keep getting my number."

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too." Calvin responded. "So...um...who's asking?"

"You're not jealous are you?" She asked him.

"No, but...you can't blame a guy for being curious can you?" He asked as her phone buzzed again. She saw the way he was looking at it.

"You are jealous aren't you?" She asked.

"I just think it's a little off so many people are sending messages to someone who's already in a relationship." Calvin said with a little bit of a pout. "I get a lot of people don't want to go alone but..."

"Oh my God, are you really that insecure?" She teased him.

"No, I just..." Just then, his phone started ringing. "Hang on a sec...yeah, this is Calvin...Cherry?"

"Cherry?" Hayley mouthed. Cherry had, at one time, been Ace's girlfriend before he was ultimately expelled and arrested for dealing human growth hormone in the school. Back when Calvin had found out that he was not the master mechanic he claimed to be he had witnessed him treating Cherry very badly, and when he grabbed her, he had intervened. They later found out that as a result of his heavy HGH use and his short temper he had mistreated her for some time.

"Yeah, what can I help you with?" He asked, before a little smile crept across his face. "Oh, oh really? You want to go to the dance with me?"

Hayley just glared at him, crossing her arms. He had the kind of smirk on his face that indicated he was having a little too much fun seeing the shoe on the other foot.

"Well, I'm really flattered but Hayley and I are going...yeah, we're still going strong." Calvin answered. "OK, I guess I'll see you around, thanks for asking."

He hung up and gave Hayley a smug little look.

"You're not really that insecure are you?" He teased her. Hayley picked up a little bag and thrust it into his hand.

"Kody made this for you." She told him. Calvin just laughed and headed off to find a trash can. Hayley went back to watching Sarah and Brody running through some exercises. It was a lot more basic than the Rangers were used to, and while there was certainly never a bad time to go back and polish up some of the basics in Martial Arts; his idea was primarily to figure out some lessons for Emma. Sarah was pretty close to Emma's size and build so he figured that she was a good benchmark to go by as to what she'd be able to handle physically.

"Alright, so that's good." Brody said as he completed a short sequence with her. "Thanks for doing this."

"Hey, no problem." She responded. "It's better than watching everyone walk around all heart-eyed for each other."

"I appreciate your help. Emma's definitely a challenge." Brody told her. "It's difficult enough when someone gets the lessons pretty quickly but when it takes a few more trials to get things...it's definitely something."

"So why don't you just ask her to get a new teacher?" She asked him. "It's not like you don't have a lot on."

"I don't know...I guess there's a part of me that almost feels like it's almost even more satisfying to see someone who has a little more trouble with the lessons finally get it." He said as he thought about it. He then shrugged. "I don't know. I guess she's just growing on me."

Elsewhere, Preston was wandering in the park, having separated off from the others to think. He really didn't want company right now, not after what he had heard.

He had only known Sandy a short time, but already she was on his mind most of the time. She was just incredible to him. She loved a lot of the same things he did, she seemed to really like spending time with him, she was always happy to see him. How could he have gotten it so wrong?

Hayley was egging him on to ask her to the dance, but then she had done the same thing with him and Sarah and that had been a disaster. It was only down to the strength of their friendship that they had gotten through the awful theatre of awkwardness that was their entire 'dating' period without turning off each other altogether. He was grateful that they had managed to find a way to realise that they simply didn't feel like that about each other without anyone's feelings getting hurt.

He wished he could blame Victor for this. Sandy's mood was understandably pretty dark when she left him. He didn't really know what had happened but it was pretty clear to anyone paying attention that she hadn't really been into him, which was a good thing, but now she had declared she wanted to go to the dance alone.

Preston was always nervous about rejection to begin with. Sandy was great, a really good friend, but would that still be the case if he'd asked her? Would she have laughed at him? Would she have bawled him out like she had with Victor? He was starting to think that maybe it was for the best he didn't push matters. What was it Sarah had said earlier? In a few months most of them probably wouldn't even be in the same city?

His dad had been putting out feelers and getting back in touch with some of his old friends at his Alma Mater, Princeton, but Preston was already looking at other options. He kind of half-looked at some performing arts colleges given his love of magic, but since he did well in some of his sciences he was also thinking of some of the science programs in other schools. He could always look for schools that would let him minor in his performance, and at worst he could always work independent shows while he got what his dad would call "a real degree". He certainly had options, but he didn't even know what Sandy was even looking at doing, never mind where. Maybe Sarah was right. Maybe it was best to just enjoy being friends rather than wasting time on something that was probably not going to last.

"Preston!" He heard someone call out. He recognised the voice, this was something he really didn't want to deal with right now, but he just breathed a sigh, put a smile on his face and turned around.

"Sandy, hi!" He greeted her. Sandy stood before him, but was noticeably quiet for a little longer than Preston was comfortable with, before she finally pulled a piece of paper out of her bag.

"I...I think I figured out that reaction you were going over with me last time." She told him. Inside, she was kicking herself. Really? She'd rushed into battle with powerful monsters with very little idea how to fight and now was when she chickened out?

Her encounter with Victor had left her in a terrible mood, one so bad that she had only realised after she'd left the library that she'd almost walked straight through Preston. She did want to go over her homework with him, he was tutoring her after all, but she had hoped that maybe, just maybe she might finally be able to get the words out and ask him to the dance.

"Yeah, this looks good...yeah; I think you've got it." Preston said, handing it back to her. "Keep up with this; soon you'll be making dynamite."

"I really don't think so! I'm kind of attached to my fingers and I'd like it to stay that way." She chuckled nervously. She looked to Preston, seeing they way he was looking at him. Really? Lame jokes? She had to sound like such an idiot in front of him.

"No, seriously! It's like anything else; confidence is a huge part of it." Preston assured her. "You know what you're doing; you just need to believe it yourself."

"Listen; about earlier...I'm sorry I shoved past you." She told him. "I didn't even realise it was you until after I left the library. Victor just put me in a really terrible mood and..."

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about." Preston told her. "Victor is...unique to say the least. He can make you laugh or make you want to eat your own fingers and pretty much everything in between depending on what day it is."

"I think it was more like the latter on this occasion." She responded.

"So, uh...do you have any more homework you want me to look at?" Preston asked her.

"No, I think that's it." Sandy said, putting it away.

"Alright then, uh...I won't keep you." Preston said to her. Sandy took a deep breath.

"Preston, wait!" She called after him. "There's um...there is something else I want to talk to you about?"

"Oh?" He asked her. "What is it?"

"Uh..." Sandy just stood, that same sound coming from her mouth for so long, she had to think her brain had just completely stopped working. If it was a computer, she'd be on the Blue Screen of Death. Preston was looking at her, waiting for her to answer. He had to think she was a moron; she was just staring at him!

'Come on mouth, say something!' She thought to herself, but it wasn't responding. Just then, Preston looked away. Was he just walking away? Had he finally given up on the girl that just stood, open-mouthed like an idiot staring at him? Why wasn't he walking away? What was he looking at? He grabbed her arm, at which she looked the direction he was. She saw a monster, hovering a little way from them, touching down on the ground.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Preston asked. She looked to the monster, but...it didn't help. Damn, the monster didn't have a mouth! Not one that she could see anyway. Preston was backing away from the monster, his hand on Sandy's arm, drawing her away and slightly behind him. He was trying to protect her. He didn't know about her powers...stupid Emma, if it wasn't for her she could morph and they could take on the monster together. She realised Preston probably wasn't morphing because he thought she didn't know about his powers.

She saw the monster levelling a weapon their way, and without thinking she shoved Preston aside. She felt something hit her backpack as they tumbled and fell to the ground. She was grateful as she saw the others coming. Preston wouldn't morph in front of her. He helped her up.

"I'm going to get you somewhere safe." He said to her, before looking to the Rangers. "Thank you Rangers!"

Sandy followed him as they ran, leaving the area. If it wasn't for the fact that thanks to her, or rather thanks to Emma's insistence that Sandy not tell them about the Green Power Star just yet he was leaving the team short-handed, but she couldn't help smiling. It was somewhat adorable the way he was trying to keep up the pretence.

The Rangers faced down the monster as Sandy and Preston left. Brody just levelled his sword towards her.

"I'm guessing from that medallion you're a Galactic Ninja." He stated.

"Yes, I am! I am Venoma! The Galactic Ninja of dangerous love!" She introduced herself, flapping her arms around and striking a pose. An explosion went off behind her as she held the pose.

"OK, if that's what we seriously look like...I'm really embarrassed!" Hayley commented. The others nodded.

"So, uh...before we start, any chance you could tell us how many of you there are left?" Levi asked. The others just looked at him. "It was worth asking."

"You will pay for dishonouring the reputation of the Galactic Ninjas!" She replied, completely ignoring Levi's question. She held up her wrist-mounted weapon. "Now, prepare to feel the sting of poisonous love!"

She aimed it at the team, firing in their direction. The Rangers all scattered for cover, diving and dodging as they went. Brody though seemed to take a hit just as he was about to get behind a tree. Unusually for most attacks, the arrow didn't seem to be deflected by his suit. Instead it seemed to sink in. The others were horrified as Brody de-morphed, standing completely still.

"Brody's been hit!" Levi called out. "We need to get him..."

"Um...anyone else noticing he isn't like...falling down or anything?" Calvin asked. Brody pulled the arrow out, dropping it onto the ground, before a sickly looking smile crossed his face. He started heading straight for Venoma...and... "Is he...skipping?"

"Venoma, my sweet darling!" Brody said in a sing-song tone as he started skipping right towards her. "Where have you been all my life?"

"My wonderful Red Ranger, come show me your love!" She beckoned him. "Perhaps, a token of affection...I really like stars."

"Anything for my sweet!" Brody said as he reached for his Power Star. Now the others saw what was going on.

"Guys, stop him!" Levi screamed. Hayley and Sarah ran to him, grabbing him and holding him steady.

"What are you doing? Can't you see my true love wants..."

"Oh, I see what she wants!" Sarah told him, trying to hold him steady as he struggled. "I don't know about you but I think the super-powers and weapons is more of a second-date gift don't you?"

"You're right...Venoma my love! Where do you want to go...?"

"Oh, for the love of..." Hayley grumbled, before doing the only thing she could think of and grabbing him around the neck, locking in a sleeper hold. Brody had taught her very well. Just as he promised, it was only a few seconds before he didn't have the strength to fight out of it even if he wanted to. She was certain, though, that if he wasn't distracted by his newfound infatuation for Venoma that it wouldn't have been quite so easy. She saw the way Sarah was staring at her as she took Brody's Power Star for safe keeping. "It was the only thing I could think of!"

"Well, maybe we should get back to the guys before..." Sarah said, before they turned back in time to see Calvin and Levi both de-morphing, both of them with arrows stuck in them. "...before that happens."

"Now boys, you know I'm not the kind of girl that is easily impressed. I like boys that give very generous gifts." She declared. Sarah looked to Hayley, then reluctantly pulled out her Ninja Blaster, hitting both of them with stun blasts before they could hand over their Power Stars. Hayley converted her morpher into bow mode.

"You seem so fond of bows...how do you like this one?" Hayley called out, firing energy arrows at Venoma. She was blasted back, and seemed to search around for something.

"Damn, out of arrows!" She stated. "Not to worry, three is a good start! I'll be back soon, but until then...know that absence only makes the heart grow fonder!"

With that, she took to the sky, darting away as Hayley fired after her. Sarah came to stop her.

"Hayls, it's too late, she's gone." Sarah told her.

"We have to..."

"Hayley, you're upset, I get it!" Sarah interrupted her. "But think, we need to be smart about this. We know she's coming back. She has to come to us to get the Power Stars, which means we don't have to chase her. She needs to come and find us."

"But..."

"Believe me; I'm not happy about this either, but these guys are going to wake up soon." She reminded her. "We should make sure it's somewhere we can keep an eye on them."

"I guess you're right." Hayley grumbled, getting onto her communicator. "Mick, the monster ran off, but we have a little problem."

"Problem? What kind of problem?" He asked. She looked to the guys, all smiling sweetly.

"Uh...maybe it's better if we explain in person." Hayley answered. "I'm not sure you're going to believe us if we tell you."

Elsewhere, Preston had managed to get Sandy back to the school library. He didn't like leaving the guys in the lurch, but he knew he had to make sure she was safe first. He could always call them back and make sure everything went to plan.

"Wait, what happened?" Preston asked over his communicator while Sandy was reading. He really didn't like taking advantage of the fact she was deaf, something about it felt really wrong to him, but he knew that if she wasn't looking at him she wouldn't know what he was saying. Since she was now reading, he could stand behind her and contact his friends to get an update.

"No, I'm not joking! The monster hit them with arrows and now they're in love with her!" Sarah told him. "Levi's writing a song for her as we speak!"

"Alright, I'll just make sure Sandy's OK and then I'll be right over." Preston told her. "Make sure they don't do anything stupid before I get there."

"Easier said than done." Sarah sighed as she signed off. Preston went around in front of Sandy, attracting her attention.

"Hey, you OK?" He asked her.

"I'll be fine. I'm just a little shaken." She assured him. "But I'm good, thanks to you."

"Please, I didn't do much." Preston assured her. "The Rangers did the real work."

"Not from where I was standing." She said, biting her lip a little nervously. "Preston, before, when we were talking..."

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I was just going to ask you..." She steeled herself for what she was about to say next. Preston was kind, he was sweet, and even without using his powers, he was willing to do whatever it took to keep her safe. She smiled. "...Preston, would you go to the dance with me?"

Preston blinked; he could hardly believe what he was hearing. He had thought about it all day, but he never would have thought she would ask him.

"Really? You want to go to the dance?" He asked her. "Sandy, that's great...!"

Suddenly though, a horrible realisation dawned on him. She had shoved him out the way of Venoma's attack, he could have sworn she got hit. What if Venoma's arrows didn't just make people fall in love with her?

He saw she was staring at him, expecting an answer. She'd put herself out there, and there was a large part of him that wanted to say yes. But if she was hit by the arrow, did she really want to go with him? He couldn't bring himself to take advantage of her, no matter how much he wanted to believe it was true.

"I'm sorry, but...I don't think I can." He replied. The look on her face was heartbreaking. He could see the disappointment, but he had to turn her down. Once the spell was broken, she would no doubt come to her senses and realise that she had been made to ask him, even if she didn't understand why.

"Well...why not?" She asked him dejectedly. Preston took a deep breath.

"I just...I can't. It wouldn't be right." Preston told her. Sandy couldn't face him any longer. She'd gotten the answer she was dreading. She got up and darted from the room, hoping to get some space.

"Man, I can't...I'm sorry." He muttered to himself as he rested his head on his hands. It was only then that he noticed in her hurry Sandy had left her backpack behind.

"Oh great, I have to find her and..." As he picked up the bag, something fell out. He had a look at it and saw that it was Venoma's arrow. He opened up Sandy's bag and started looking through it hurriedly, finding one of her textbooks, with a very distinctive hole in it. He flicked through it, finding that it extended almost half way in before stopping. Paper, when bundled together, was surprisingly good at absorbing impact. It was basically wood. Preston had once seen a TV show where a phone book had stopped a bullet.

"The arrow hit the book...it never touched her!" He declared happily, before suddenly the weight of what that meant came down on him like a ton of bricks. "That means...oh...oh man! She really did want to ask me out!"

He wished he could go after her, to explain why he had turned her down, but he wasn't sure she'd ever want to speak to him again after what had happened. He also had to go and check on his friends. He picked up her bag and went to the librarian's desk.

"Hey, I need to go." He told him. "Someone left this..."

"I'll put it in lost and found." The librarian told him. Preston ran out of the library, at which the librarian just shook his head. "Kids, always in such a hurry."

He started rummaging through the bag for something that had the student's name on it. Most of the textbooks didn't have anything written on them, they looked like they'd been recently issued. He went into one of the other pockets.

"Alright, we have a wallet and..." He tailed off as he pulled out the Green Power Star, before shrugging and putting it back as he checked the wallet for an ID. "I'll never understand the kids' toys these days."


	21. Runaway Loverboys!

Dane stepped down off the Greyhound in the Stone Canyon bus depot, taking a look around. He'd spent a couple of days on the way there doing a little research to find out what he could about the city, and in particular Promethea's facility there.

Stone Canyon, Angel Grove's sister city, had always had a long connection with the spiritual home of the Power Rangers, though to anyone outside of Angel Grove it was somewhat of an after-thought at best and at worst most wouldn't know what Stone Canyon even was. While Angel Grove was always very successful, Stone Canyon had a few economic downturns that hit it hard. Peaks and troughs in the economy meant that people had moved in and out of the city regularly throughout the early to mid-nineties. That was until Promethea set up a major site there.

Promethea, the company founded by former astronaut and entrepreneur Grace Sterling had its fingers in a lot of pies so to speak. Assembling some of the finest minds and sparing no expense, they had done decades worth of research in science, technology, medicine, space exploration, weapons manufacture all to name but a few. When the site was built in Stone Canyon around 1997, the city was on its last legs as most of the businesses dried up and the citizens started to leave in droves, but within only a few short years, with Prometha at its heart, Stone Canyon was not just alive and well, but actively thriving! Businesses built up around the city all fed symbiotically by the site that was churning out some of the greatest scientific advances on what felt like a daily basis. Not only businesses that fed into it directly like the metal works and the factories, but as the city re-grew it started to need other things like homes, schools, restaurants and suchlike. Now, Angel Grove mainly sold itself on its legacy as the home of the Rangers as a tourist attraction. Stone Canyon though was the new hub of the entire county!

Dane didn't care particularly much about most of that. All he cared about was finding out about Promethea and finding out what was the best way to approach finding out what he could about Mariko and where she was now. Benny, after a little convincing, had told him that Mariko had contracted a very serious illness, and had gone to Stone Canyon to take part in medical trials at a Promethea site for an experimental treatment. It was just another thing that pained him to know about how his actions had harmed Mariko, to know that she had to go through all that alone. He had no idea what he could say to her, never mind what he would say to her if he did find out where she was. It was an all too familiar feeling for him, knowing that he could never make up to someone the harm he had done them in the past, only try to make some kind of amends for the present.

It wasn't too hard to find Promethea, if anything the problem was narrowing the search down. Stone Canyon now was virtually all about the group. Benny had told him it was a Prometha hospital he needed to find, but it was only after leaving San Francisco that he learned he should really have asked him to narrow it down. Promethea owned no more than fifteen hospitals in the city, about a dozen of which were open when Mariko went to the city. If he'd thought to get the name of the hospital it might have helped. Still, it wasn't as though it was the first mistake he'd made on his search.

Hoisting his backpack onto his shoulder, he trudged off in search of the first hospital on his list, hoping that at some point, he might be due for a turn in his luck.

Over in Summer Cove, the Rangers had assembled in the lab, trying to figure out what to do about Venoma. It was far from the first time one of them had been under a spell or the influence of some poison or some other factor that affected their mental state. However, it was still always a problem whenever even one of them was taken out of action. Right now, it looked like three of them could not been relied upon to fight Venoma. The Green Ranger was still very much a wild-card since none of them knew who she was and so as far as Sarah, Hayley and Preston were aware, potentially they were on their own.

"No, Brody, you can't have Super Ninja Steel to make a gift for Venoma." Mick put down flatly as he wrenched a piece from his hands. "You can…take your pick from my scraps box, but we…don't know if the Nexus Prism will…"

"Will even be able to deal with the depths of my love!" Brody concluded, letting go of the Super Ninja Steel, causing Mick to stumble a little. "That's good thinking Mick, thank you!"

As Brody wandered off to find something to make a gift for his 'true love' Venoma, Mick put the Super Ninja Steel back. He'd never considered the need to lock it up or keep it away from the Rangers before. All of them knew how precious Super Ninja Steel was. Much like the Ninja Steel before it, they only had a finite amount and they still had no idea if any more even existed. After melting down all the Ninja Steel Stars to re-forge them with the stronger Super Steel, they kept it just in case, but the point was they couldn't afford to waste even a few grams, much less for a gift for a monster.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen Brody like this." Hayley commented. "I didn't even know he was interested in dating."

"I don't think he would be if it wasn't for those arrows." Mick sighed. "Considering most of the women he met growing up were violent sociopaths dating wasn't really much of a consideration."

There was a loud yelp from the corner, where they all turned, finding Sarah holding a syringe and Calvin with a pained expression on his face, rubbing his arm.

"Oh, suck it up lover boy!" She grumbled. "You just got shot with an arrow, do you think Venoma would be impressed if she saw you whining about me taking a little blood?"

Calvin immediately scurried off back to his corner to pine over Venoma as Sarah took the blood sample to her computer. Hayley came over to her.

"Um…what was that?" She asked.

"I needed a blood sample." Sarah told her. "We need to know what we're working with here, venom, magic, you know…"

"Yeah, I think I'd prefer it if you didn't turn my boyfriend into a pin cushion in the process." Hayley commented.

"I took one sample!" She protested.

"Yeah, it's not just that…you've been a little short lately." Hayley stated. "You've been in kind of a mood this week to be honest."

"Seeing my friends about to try and romance a psychotic space ninja will kind of do that to me!" Sarah replied sarcastically. "Anyway, why aren't you more pissed about the fact Calvin's dumping you for an insect?"

"Hey, I know it's not real." Hayley responded with a shrug. "I know where Calvin's heart really is."

Preston let out a sigh as Sarah responded with a gagging gesture. Hayley rolled her eyes and went over to him.

"You found any spells on that arrow?" She asked. Being the resident magic expert, Preston was the natural choice to check the arrows for any spells that might be causing the intense infatuation in the others. He just shook his head.

"I just…I can't concentrate." He admitted.

"Preston, why ever not?" Hayley asked him. He just looked to her.

"Sandy…Sandy asked me to the dance." Preston told her. Hayley's face lit up.

"Are you kidding? Preston, that's great!" She screeched. "Did you hear that Sarah? After all his doubts Sandy asked him!"

Sarah dropped what she was doing and trotted over excitedly, sitting down next to him.

"Alright, you have to tell us everything! All the details, right now!" Sarah told him.

"I said no." Preston told them. They both looked to each other, then back to him. Sarah reached out and started squeezing and knocking on his head.

"Not quite ripe yet." She commented. "Hello? What are you doing? You wanted this!"

"Yeah, but…she got hit by one of those arrows and I was worried…"

"That she only wanted to go out with you because of the arrow." Hayley sighed.

"Aw, Preston." Sarah said sympathetically as she stroked his arm. "If it's worth anything, you did the right thing."

"That's just the thing, it turns out, I didn't." Preston told them. "The arrow hit one of the books in her bag. It never touched her."

"So that means Sandy really did want to ask you?" Sarah asked him. He just nodded.

"But now I've told her I don't want to go with her!" Preston complained. "Now she's going to hate me!"

"Well…at least you know she did like you?" Hayley offered weakly. "And you did the right thing when you weren't sure, a lot of guys wouldn't have."

Before Preston could say anything, the computer chimed. Sarah ran over to it, checking the analysis.

"Alright, that's confirmed one thing, it isn't a venom." She told them as she analysed the blood work. "There's nothing foreign in Calvin's bloodstream, which leaves us with magic."

"I almost wish it was venom." Hayley remarked. "At least then we could come up with an anti-venom. Now we're stuck with breaking the spell."

"Which going by previous experience is best accomplished by finding the monster and destroying it." Sarah said as she looked to them.

"But how do we stop her getting us too?" Preston asked.

"Well, she's not aimed for us yet." Sarah pointed out, gesturing to herself and Hayley.

"But that means that we're down to only two of us!" Hayley answered. "Unless the Green Ranger shows up, and who knows when she'll turn up."

"Well, I wasn't thinking about that so much." Sarah said, putting her arm around Preston. "I was thinking more along the lines of…"

"Live bait?" Preston grumbled.

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that exactly…"

"How else would you put it?" Hayley asked her. Sarah thought about it for a moment.

"OK, I guess that is what I'm suggesting." She said. Preston just sighed.

"Alright." He grumbled. "But if I get hit with one of those arrows and turn on you…"

"I…think I might have that covered." Mick said as he snapped his fingers. "I think I might have an idea…"

"Mick? If you're over here, who's watching the guys?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, they're right over…" His words tailed off as they realised the others were gone. "…there."

"Really? Taking your eyes off of trained ninja?" Hayley asked him.

"Um…yeah, point taken." Mick answered. "Sarah, Hayley, how about you go see if you can find the guys and I'll work on getting Preston ready for the plan?"

"Come on Hayls, looks like we're in charge of making sure the guys don't do something stupid." Sarah muttered.

"What else is new?" Hayley replied.

In another area of the school, Emma was sitting with her laptop when Sandy stormed up to her, flopping herself down opposite her. She closed over her laptop, cautiously trying to appraise her sister's mood.

"Having a good day?" She asked weakly. Sandy just threw her hands up.

"No, I am about as far from having a good day as I could possibly get!" She snapped. "I swear to God, I hate this place!"

"What's wrong?" Emma asked her, putting her laptop away and coming to comfort her sister. She could see that Sandy was clearly very upset. A lot of it seemed like anger, but she could also tell there was some hurt in there too.

"It's everything about this place! I just…I hate it here! Nothing's gone right since I got here!" Sandy said a little bitterly. "The other kids are either creeps or assholes, I'm barely getting anywhere in science, I got stuck with that stupid Power Star for…God knows what reason and I just made a complete idiot of myself in front of Preston!"

"Preston…alright, let's start there." Emma said sympathetically. "What happened?"

"I met up with him in the park." She told her sister. "We were talking and it was really nice, but then some monster attacked us and…of course I couldn't use my powers or anything because you…"

"OK, how about we skip this part?" Emma sighed. "Look, I know I put you in a bad position with that promise, but please, I'm begging you, it won't be much longer then you can tell him everything, I swear."

"Well it very nearly got us both turned into pin cushions because he couldn't use his powers either because he thinks I don't know so we ran!" Sandy told her. "He…he got me back to the school, and he made sure I was alright, he was really sweet about everything."

Emma could see her mood lifting a little talking about that part. She and Sandy had both experienced crushes in their lives, and they recognised the signs in each other. Mainly they would tease each other when it became obvious one or other was infatuated with someone but it was good to see Sandy happy. She had been a little hesitant coming to the new school and was only convinced to come because Emma was being skipped up to senior year thanks to her stellar performance in most of her classes.

"So, you're both alright, what's the problem?" Emma asked her.

"Well, I got caught up in everything and he was so nice and all that I asked him to go to the dance with me." Sandy told her. Emma beamed brightly.

"Well it's about freaking time!" She congratulated her. "Wait, you're upset he…he…he didn't…?"

"He turned me down cold." Sandy whispered quietly. "I don't know what I was thinking, it was a dumb idea and…"

"Hey, hey, don't do that to yourself!" Emma said soothingly.

"He said it wouldn't be right!" Sandy snapped. "I mean, what the hell is that even meant to mean?"

"Maybe he's not into girls?" Emma suggested weakly. Sandy just looked at her witheringly. "OK, probably not. Look, maybe…maybe he meant because he'd just saved you from that monster. Maybe he meant because he didn't want you to go out with him because you were grateful and thought you owed him."

"But that's not what he said." Sandy whined.

"Well, what did he say?" Emma asked.

"I guess I didn't really give him the chance to say much." Sandy admitted. "I was so embarrassed and upset I just ran out of there."

"Well, maybe when you next see him you can ask about it?" Emma suggested. Just then, she heard a bleep on her computer. She opened it up, checking the software she had created. "Hey, it looks like the others are on the move. There's a fair amount of activity on their communicators."

"You hacked their communicators?" Sandy asked. "You know, that really isn't going to help put you in their good books when you finally tell them."

"They're ninjas, they'll appreciate my ingenuity I'm sure." Emma brushed her off. "OK, it looks like they're searching for that monster, maybe you should go help them."

"Really?" Sandy asked. "You want me to help them?"

"Well, I think that's kind of what you got that star for in the first place right?" She asked. "Uh…speaking of which, where is it?"

"It's right in my…" Sandy's words tailed off as she suddenly started scrambling. "…bag. Oh shit! My bag! I've lost my bag, I must have left it in the library!"

"You left your bag in the library…with a Power Star that lets you access powerful weapons technology in the pocket?" Emma asked. "Seriously?"

"I know, I screwed up…"

"I'll say! What kind of Ranger forgets or loses their morpher?" She asked.

"Tell you what, how about instead of making fun of me for losing it, we go and get it back?" Sandy asked. "We'll check the library, hopefully someone will have handed it in."

The Rangers had all split up to go out into the city on patrol. Given the fact that Venoma seemed more drawn to attacking the male Rangers, Preston was being set up to go looking for Venoma, while Sarah and Hayley had gone in search of the other guys, hoping to find them before they got themselves into trouble.

She had come to the mall, having vaguely recalled hearing something one of them mentioned about getting Venoma the perfect gift, but so far she couldn't see any sign of them. She had tried the most obvious places she could think, the candy stores, the florists, the gift shops…she was considering trying the jewellers when she saw something odd. She could see someone carrying armfuls of some of the most random assorted items she could ever recall seeing anyone carrying. There were skis, a stuffed bear, a coffee maker, balloons. The person carrying them seemed to be struggling while keeping an eye on one of the other shops. Sarah came up to him, recognising him as she got closer.

"Victor?" She asked as she approached. Victor just steadied himself as she looked to him.

"Oh, Hi Sarah." He greeted her, adjusting the items in his arms. He looked like a human pack mule with the sheer volume of items he was carrying. She laughed a little.

"OK, I have to ask, what are you doing?" She asked him.

"Oh, I'm here with Lori." He said with a bright smile as he nodded. "She just needs to pick up a few more things."

"Lori…who is she again?" Sarah asked him. Before he could answer though, a blonde girl around Sarah's age came out of the shop, carrying a credit card. She didn't seem to even acknowledge that Sarah was there. Sarah did, however, notice that she was wearing a very familiar looking necklace.

"Your credit card's maxed out, it wouldn't let me get that vegetable juicer I was looking at." Lori told him. "You have another one?"

"My wallet's in my back pocket." Victor told her. Lori fished it out, getting another credit card, before heading back into the shop. Sarah just stared at him.

"OK, what the hell was that?" She asked him.

"Lori's going to the dance with me!" Victor told her. "She just needed me to get her a few things first."

"A few things?" Sarah asked, staring at what he was carrying. "What's she doing, stocking up the world's tackiest car boot sale?"

"Come on, you can't expect a girl like Lori to be impressed by a cheap necklace can you?" He asked her. Sarah just sighed.

"Victor, for one thing, that necklace didn't look exactly cheap to me." Sarah told him. "Secondly…if she only wants to go to the dance with you if you buy her all this…stuff, do you really think that's a good thing?"

"Hey, I've got a date with one of the hottest girls in the school." Victor said a little grumpily. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

"Alright then. Have fun." She muttered as she walked away.


	22. Un-Bee-Lievable

Dane arrived at the Promethea hospital, walking in through the front door. The site was impressive, between the pristine corridors and immaculate wards through to state-of-the-art and even ground-breaking technology and treatments he had no doubt whatsoever probably didn't exist anywhere else on the planet. Patients were being treated for a variety of ailments and in a multitude of ways. Grace Sterling, among other things, was known not only as a keen scientist but also philanthropist. The only thing that was of concern here was the advancement of medical knowledge that could potentially re-shape the way the entire medical community operated. Promethea had spearheaded and released over a dozen brand new treatments that were becoming the field standard in the last few months alone, and every single one of them Sterling had donated the patents for free.

Dane found all of that admirable, but right now his only concern was trying to find out if this hospital was the one where Mariko was treated, or if there was any record of where she was treated. Even without the fact that the experimental procedures and devices being tested here were potentially worth millions to more mercenary-minded companies, doctor/patient privilege meant that the hospital would be unable to simply give him the information he was looking for without Mariko's consent. The sheer value of what was going on created its own problem as the security was incredibly tight. In the very short time, he'd already spent in the building, he'd seen cameras, biometric security locks and enough security guards to guard the Pentagon. It was going to be tough, but he didn't come this far to walk away empty-handed.

He found what he presumed to be the records room, a door with some kind of scanner lock, like many of the others, but the people going in and out of here weren't wearing lab coats like most of the other areas. They were mostly suits, which made him suspect it was probably administrators. He saw someone approach the door and lift up his glasses, staring into the lock, before opening the door.

"Retinal scan." He commented. "OK, time to get creative!"

He went to a nearby vending machine, putting in some quarters to allay suspicion. One thing security looked for anywhere was people that looked like they didn't belong. One easy way to make it look like you didn't belong somewhere was doing nothing. Simply standing around with no noticeable reason for being there was a good way to attract curiosity, and Dane was already aware that there were a lot of eyes, both biological and technological in this area.

He selected a soda and stood by the machine, opening it as he took a look around. The door was covered by cameras and guards swung by in routine intervals. It was clear whatever was in here was valuable, and he couldn't imagine much being more valuable to a medical research facility than information.

He started to analyse the area, looking for a way to create a distraction for when he made his move. He spotted a fire-extinguisher only a short way from the door. Perfect! All he needed was the right opportunity.

The door opened and a man headed out of the room. Dane slipped a shuriken out of his pocket and waited until the man was clearing the door, but the door itself hadn't yet closed. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the shuriken into the fire-extinguisher, rupturing it, spraying foam all over the corridor.

The commotion was just what he was looking for. Guards were rushing to see what had caused it to rupture and others were clearing the area, while maintenance workers were coming to see how much cleaning up had to be done. This gave Dane the opening he needed to roll his soda can along the floor. It trapped the door before it closed, preventing it from locking. He strolled casually up to the door while everyone was still struggling with the fire-extinguisher and slipped inside.

Once he was in, he took a look around. There was another problem, but one he had anticipated. The room was full of computer servers, much of the data being stored electronically. He didn't doubt for a moment Promethea probably wasn't a pen-and-paper operation.

He was quiet as he looked for a vacant terminal. Fortunately, no one in the room really noticed him. Computer screens were, frankly, an incredible distraction for a lot of people. It was possible to get away with a lot while someone had a screen in front of them. He found a vacant computer and started it up.

He got the prompt for a password. Dane was no hacker. He was as far from a hacker as it was possible to get while knowing what a computer actually was. What he did know though was human nature. People had a habit of choosing passwords that meant something to them as a way of making them easy to remember. He didn't necessarily need to know how to hack the computer if he could just read the clues around the workstation. The guy that worked here was apparently called Derek…that didn't help him. He started looking around the workstation for other things. Pictures were good, family, friends, pets, these were all common passwords. Derek apparently had a Border Collie by the name of Timmy.

"Shit." Dane whispered as the computer refused this. Too simple, he needed something else. He saw that Derek liked to read. There were a number of books littered around the desk and the drawers, no doubt that he used to pass time while things loaded or programs ran. He did notice a distinct theme in his choice of literature though, Derek, it seemed, was a big fan of George RR Martin.

That narrowed it down a little, he started trying to think of character's names he had seen in the show. Being trapped in the Nexus Prism for ten years had meant he missed a lot of the pop culture phenomenon that took place in that time, but fortunately Levi was obsessed with the show and had insisted on buying him almost the entire series on DVD for his birthday. That was when he took another look at the picture of the dog. He rolled his eyes; he hadn't looked closely enough. Derek was there with the dog, but the other person in the picture…he tried the name and the computer opened up.

"Thank you, Mother of Dragons." He said to himself, taking a quick look around to make sure he hadn't been seen. He started to bring up a search, hoping for some luck.

Meanwhile, over in Summer Cove, Calvin was driving around the streets, in search of his 'beloved'. Although he wasn't exactly thrilled about his rivals for her affections, Brody and Levi coming along for the ride, it had taken all three of them to elude their friends and escape the school unseen and even in his current state Calvin still had some of his old sensibilities. Even though it would have left the way clear for him to find her on his own if he left them at the school, he had agreed that when they escaped, they would all play fair and it would be the best man that won.

"Do either of you guys know a word that rhymes with 'antenna'?" Levi asked as he continued to pen his love song for her. He didn't exactly have time to pick up a rhyming dictionary when he escaped the school, and while he was normally pretty good at coming up with lyrics on his own, it was proving challenging to express the sheer strength and power of his feelings for her…not to mention coming up with good rhymes for some of the more complex words. "I thought 'Orange' was the only word that didn't have a rhyming pairing."

"Give it up cowboy, no one falls for all that 'sensitive artist' thing anymore." Brody said in a derisive way.

"Oh, and how would you know? You spent your entire life on a space ship!" Levi snapped back.

"Please, I've seen the whole celebrity thing up close. Everyone knows they're all about themselves." Brody said with a smile. "She'll want someone who can see her for the wonderful Goddess that she is! Put her first!"

"Guys, you're both wrong. Women look for guys that can provide for them. Build them things, fix things, make things…"

"Oh, what makes you say that?" Brody asked.

"Well, out of the three of us, I'm the only one that had a girlfriend." Calvin said smugly.

"Look, whatever, this is getting us nowhere!" Brody stated. "Remember our arrangement, first we find her, then we let her choose. Anyway, I say we go to the quarry! Monsters always hang out at the quarry."

"And that's why you'll never get anywhere with her! You're thinking she's just like every other monster. You can't see how unique and special she is!" Levi argued. "Try the beach. I'm sure we'll find our lovely Venoma at the beach."

"The beach? Are you serious?" Calvin asked. "She's not an ant looking for picnics, she's a bee! Bees love gardens. I say we check out the gardens!"

"What?" Levi asked incredulously. Brody put a hand across his chest though.

"Wait, he has a point…bees like nectar, you get nectar from flowers!" Brody admitted. "Isn't that huge botanic garden centre near here?"

"Just up this road." Calvin said with a smile, flooring the accelerator. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the patrol car sitting at the side of the road. He did, however, notice when the lights started flashing and the siren sounded. He groaned loudly as he pulled over.

"Oh man, this is the pits! She'll be waiting for me!" Calvin whined. "Now she'll have to choose between you two!"

Brody and Levi looked at each other. It was their perfect opportunity to ditch Calvin and reduce the field to just the two of them, but even in their current state, they still had their own sense of honour. As much as he was a rival for their affections, he was also their friend. They both just nodded and settled down.

"No, we'll stay with you." Levi assured him.

"Yeah, we're not going to ditch you." Brody agreed. "Besides, whichever one of us wins it should be fair and square."

The cop tapped on the glass, at which Calvin rolled down his window.

"Oh, hey guys." Spike greeted them as he recognised them. "Look, sorry to do this but I'm on duty. So, do you know why you were pulled over?"

"If it's for being in love then take me in because I'm guilty as sin!" Calvin said with the weirdest, craziest grin Spike could ever remember seeing. He had to do a double take.

"Uh, actually it was for going 30 in a 20 zone but…"

"I don't care about the ticket, I don't even care about prison, I'd gladly face a firing squad for Venoma!" He said wistfully. Spike just started rubbing his eyes. Panorama had its own share of weirdness, and he could recognise the effects of a monster a mile away.

"OK, I'm doing this for your own good." Spike sighed. "Out the truck, all three of you."

"What for?" Levi asked.

"Field sobriety test, licence and registration check, vehicle maintenance spot check…" He started rhyming off before whispering under his breath. "…and anything else I can think of to keep you for as long as I can."

Back at the school, Sandy ran into the library, sprinting up to the desk. The librarian looked up in alarm as she slammed her hands down on the desk.

"I left my bag here!" She rushed out. "Please tell me it's been handed in!"

"Alright, calm down young lady." The librarian told her. "Can you describe it?"

"What? How many bags have been left here?" She asked him.

"You'd be surprised." He told her. "Now, what am I looking for?"

"OK, it's white with green trim, it's got some chemistry textbooks in it…"

"And a green star?" He asked. Sandy just gulped.

"Uh…yeah." She said, trying to think of what to say about that. "Um…it's…"

"I'll never understand all the fads and crazes you kids go through." The librarian said, fetching Sandy's bag. "And you might want to take better care of your possessions…especially if they're not yours!"

"I'm sorry?" She asked. He pulled out a book, showing it to her.

"You checked this out of the library, now look at it!" He complained, showing her the book with the hole in it.

"I…I…have no idea how that happened!" She protested, looking at her bag. "There's…there's a hole in here too…"

"And that's the only reason your parents aren't getting a sternly worded letter demanding you pay to replace it!" The librarian stated. "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't cause this, but in future try to return borrowed materials in the condition they were lent to you!"

"I will." Sandy gulped. "Sorry about the book."

With that, she turned to leave. Her phone vibrated, at which she pulled it out, checking the text message, finding it from Emma.

"There's an energy spike by the warehouse district." The message read. "Preston's near there."

Sandy deleted the text, before running out of the library.

Back at the side of the road, Spike had all three of the guys standing on one leg with their arms outstretched, arching them inward to touch their nose with one finger as they recited the alphabet backwards.

"…C…B…A!" They all recited as they finished. Spike meanwhile was checking the tread on Calvin's tyres.

"Uh…I think I saw a little wobble." He stated. "Start again."

"Oh, come on!" Levi protested.

"Yeah, why are we doing this? Calvin was driving!" Brody protested.

"Moral support, now start again!" Spike told them. The guys all groaned before starting the whole process again. Sarah and Hayley arrived a short time later.

"We got your message." Sarah stated. "Um…what's going on?"

"Well, Calvin was speeding, but I don't think that's the main problem." Spike stated. "Unless Venoma's a girl in your class with a really weird name, I'd say they're under a monster spell."

"Thank you." Hayley responded. He just shrugged.

"Trust me, we saw weird stuff like this all the time back in Panorama." Spike told her. "One time I spent the day glued to my friend Cody and…"

"Hey guys!" Sarah greeted them, struggling not to laugh as she saw how ridiculous they all looked. "So, how are things?"

"They'll be going a lot better once this guy just gives Calvin his ticket and lets us go." Brody grumbled. "Venoma's waiting for us!"

Sarah looked to Spike, who just shook his head. It seemed he was going to look the other way on the speeding ticket, no doubt realising it wasn't as if they were completely responsible for their actions. It didn't mean he wasn't going to delay them as much as possible though.

"OK, well…how about you keep doing this and I'll see if I can talk to the nice officer?" Sarah offered, before walking over to him. "Thanks for this."

"Hey, any time." Spike replied. "Serve and protect right?"

In another area of the city, Sandy arrived in the warehouse district, looking around for any sign of Preston or the monster. Although Emma had tracked down their location to the general vicinity but she hadn't yet seen them.

She quickly morphed so that she wouldn't be recognised before starting her search. She eventually found Preston wandering around, looking around. She furrowed her bros in confusion. He was obviously looking for the monster but for some reason he hadn't yet morphed. Why hadn't he morphed?

He stopped by some barrels, checking something with his fingertips. She couldn't see what he was looking at, but it wasn't long after that he snapped around, seeing the monster on a warehouse above him. Sandy rushed towards them, hoping to intercept but before she got to them, Venoma had already fired her arrow, hitting Preston.

She saw him fall and wanted to check on him, but she knew her priority was the monster. Swinging wildly as her rage took control, she chased Venoma, catching her off-guard with her initial attack. It wasn't long though before the element of surprise wore off and Venoma's superior skills turned the tide. Sandy flew back through a pile of barrels which collapsed on top of her, pinning her in place. Venoma was coming towards her, no doubt looking to finish her off, when Preston stood up. He had a strange look on his face as he grabbed the arrow, pulling it out. He started to head towards her.

"Venoma, my sweet…why didn't I see it sooner?" She could see him saying. It confused the hell out of her as he threw the arrow down and started skipping towards her, his arms open wide. She could hardly believe her eyes when she saw him embrace her, and it turned her stomach when she saw the way he stared into her eyes.

As they embraced, she struggled to dig herself out from under the barrels, but just before she was free, she saw Preston was doing something with his hand, working on the belt holding Venoma's quiver. In one swift move, he whipped it off, before spinning away from her. She watched as he took out the arrows and snapped them across his knee. There was a bright flash as he did so. Whatever was going on, it looked like Venoma was just as surprised as her. That was when she saw Preston pull a metal plate out from under his t-shirt, with a dent right where the arrow had hit.

She thought about it. He got hit and then started acting oddly, acting like he was in love with Venoma, but that was all a ruse, the arrow never hit him…

Then she remembered the hole in her bag, and the damage to the book. She remembered taking a hit when Venoma showed up earlier, perhaps it had been one of her arrows. But if the arrows made people fall in love…now it made sense! Preston had been reluctant about her asking him to the dance and he hadn't been clear about why he wouldn't, only saying it wouldn't be right. He didn't know that she knew he was a Ranger, so he couldn't explain he knew about the spell on the arrows. If he thought she was hit by the arrow, if he didn't know that the book had got in the way, then he would think she was under a spell!

As Preston morphed, ready for battle, Sandy couldn't help herself and rushed over, hugging him tightly. She only just realised what she was doing a few seconds later and backed away, with Preston staring at her. She could only imagine how confused he was. She took up her sword and faced Venoma, with Preston doing the same, before they both rushed to the attack.

Back at the side of the road, Spike was running out of ideas how to delay the guys. He'd already administered a couple of breath tests, three field sobriety tests, ran the plates through the DMV, checked all of their paperwork and given Nitro an inspection so thorough only a professional mechanic could have been any more detailed.

"Look, I've done everything I can think of." Spike told them.

"Well, can't you just…you know…arrest them or something?" Sarah asked.

"SARAH!" Hayley screamed.

"Police can hold someone for 24 hours before they have to charge them with a crime." She declared. Both Spike and Hayley just stared at her.

"Do I want to ask how you know that?" Hayley asked.

"My dad's a convicted felon remember?" Sarah replied with a sigh. Al had turned his life around from his days of investment fraud, and it wasn't a part of his past that the family really liked to talk about much, but it was something that they did acknowledge. Although Sarah had been young when it happened, Al had gone through the full rigours of the legal system and that wasn't something a kid could watch without picking up a few things.

"Yeah, but if I do then I have to run them through the system, which means paperwork. That's a lot harder to just sweep under the rug than just letting them off with a warning." Spike explained. "Not to mention I'd need to call their parents…"

"Guys, look!" Hayley called out, pointing to the guys. They all watched as a flash of pink light came from the guys, before they all started looking extremely confused.

"Uh…OK, what just happened?" Calvin asked.

"Oh, you know, the usual, spell, monster, you wanting to run off into her arms." Sarah stated.

"Wait, we were in love…with a monster?" Calvin asked.

"It's not the weirdest thing I've heard." Spike responded. "Back in Panorama, there was this one time…"

"Yeah, great story, we'll listen to it another time." Hayley interrupted him as her communicator bleeped. "Guys, we have that…thing…at the place and…"

"Oh, yeah right!" Brody replied. "Um…thanks for everything!"

"Sure." Spike responded as they got into Nitro and drove away. "Don't mention it. OK, so…back to the beat."


	23. Green Reveal

Venoma attacked viciously, enraged by the failure of her scheme. It wasn't often her schemes failed. She found the male of most species simple to manipulate and her spell was generally more than enough that once she got a few key leaders under her spell, quickly her enemies would fall to chaos. She could hardly believe that any man, let alone from a species as primitive and backwards as these humans could ever outwit her.

However, if anyone was to believe that Venoma's only strength was the power of her love spells, Preston and Sandy were very quickly finding them to be grossly unfounded. Venoma had earned her place among the elite Galactic Ninjas as much for her skill in combat as her trickery and deception.

Preston's costume was still smoking from a power blast as he pulled himself to his feet. He could see the Green Ranger hacking away wildly at Venoma, the only reason that the monster couldn't follow up and finish him off. The Green Ranger was still an enigma to the team. She had broken into the Romero Farm, taken a Power Star and been issued powers by the Nexus Prism. While the team was eager to find out who she was, especially as her involvement at times seemed to complicate things for the Rangers as well as the monsters, Preston was still torn by one nagging thought. While none of the Rangers, hell, NO ONE understood how the Nexus Prism worked; the one thing that had been consistent about it was that it never made decisions that weren't ultimately for good, even if it wasn't immediately apparent why.

Sarah had been around the Ranger phenomenon longer than the others, assisting the Amber Beach team for a time before moving to Summer Cove, but she had told them that this seemed to be a rule that was consistent among the Morphing Grid in all its forms. The Dino Gems actively rejected people that were unsuited to wielding their power. No one had ultimately been able to wield Ranger Powers that wasn't on some level a good person, even if when they got them they were somehow influenced into acting on the side of evil. While he understood the reservations people had about the Green Ranger, he had also seen her selflessly throw herself in harm's way more than once to help others. It might not be easy to figure out, but for some reason, the Nexus Prism had chosen her.

He was starting to prepare his blaster as the Green Ranger was grappling with Venoma when he noticed something. She was doing something with her free hand...what was it? Was she trying to summon a weapon? No, she seemed to be making a circling motion with her fingers and...

Preston put away his blaster and started to run out wide to his left. The Green Ranger twisted Venoma's back towards him, allowing Preston to get in a telling blow. As she bellowed out in pain, the Green Ranger hit an upward strike with her sword, twisting out to the side, before spinning inwards. Preston quickly took the other side, and as one, their blades both struck Venoma sending her sprawling.

Sandy was preparing for another attack when she saw Preston holding something out to her. It was another Power Star! He was trusting her with one of their weapons! Preston locked an identical one into his sword, and she watched as he turned it to one of the different symbols on the star. She was perfectly certain he was probably telling her what he wanted her to do, but she could only guess and hope that he wanted her to do the same. She watched as Preston spun the Power Star before running at Venoma and opted to do the same, following him.

Preston rushed into Venoma before she could recover, spinning through her. Sandy did likewise a few paces behind him. As they got to the other side, Sandy could feel heat and a significant shockwave behind her, and saw Preston turning slowly towards her, relaxing and levelling his sword over his shoulders. The reflection in his visor confirmed that Venoma was no longer there, only a flaming, charred piece of earth where she had been standing. Sandy saw the others arriving shortly afterwards.

Preston seemed to be saying something to them, explaining what had happened. Sandy felt completely alienated, unable to understand anything that was going on. She looked to the Power Star in her blade, taking it out, before offering it to the team. It was theirs after all, perhaps if she showed she was willing to give it back, they'd realise she was only there to help.

Brody approached her slowly, taking the Power Star from her and staring at it for a moment, before offering her his hand. Sandy was about to accept the gesture when she saw the Rangers all starting to back away. She could feel the ground shaking and turned around seeing Venoma growing to massive size. Knowing that this was one thing she couldn't help the team with, she backed away, leaving them to summon their Zords.

She hated being unable to help, but right now she would only get in the way...an all too familiar feeling since she got these powers. The only difference was while the monsters were normal size, at very least she could act as a target at best or a speed-bump at worst. Sticking around when Venoma was the size of a skyscraper would not even buy the team seconds if the monster stepped on her.

She was about to leave when she noticed something odd. A little way off, she could see another monster watching from a position in hiding. She was a strange looking creature, one that looked to be wearing a porcelain mask and wearing a kimono, carrying a fan. She didn't seem to notice Sandy, which could be in her favour. Taking the opportunity, Sandy circled round, trying to figure out what she was doing there. If she couldn't help with the Zord battle, maybe at least she could stop another monster setting up an ambush.

Over in Stone Canyon, Dane had managed to get out of the Promethea hospital, causing a distraction with a small fire in the computer room so he could slip out.

He had managed to find some records pertaining to some experimental cancer treatments, but he figured it was for the best that he narrow his search down off-site. One of the key skills of the ninja was speed. While stealth was, of course, the main focus of their training, the longer anyone remained somewhere they weren't meant to be, the more they just tempted fate that someone would stumble across them. One could study all the routines, guard patrols and camera sweeps they wanted, but there was always an element of random chance involved. Timing a guard patrol meant little when someone needed to go for a pee or felt like stopping by the coffee machine on the third floor instead of the fourth because the one nearest their office ran out of latte.

He had copied the file to a flash drive, with the intent of looking it over when he got to his hotel room. When he got there though, there was something curious. The television was off. In order to prevent anyone investigating him too closely, Dane always turned on the television and left a do not disturb sign outside of his door so that housekeeping wouldn't bother him. The television was off, which meant someone had gone into his room.

He pulled out a short knife, gripping it behind his back, before triggering the lock and rushing through the door. He saw a white-haired woman sitting in the chair on the opposite side of the room.

"I was starting to wonder if you were coming back Mr Romero." She greeted him. Dane just looked to her curiously.

"I know my luggage isn't top-shelf but it does hold some sentimental value." He told her. "Mind if I ask what you're doing here?"

"Sorry, I wouldn't want to forget my manners. Breaking and entry should at least warrant an introduction don't you think?" She asked him. "My name is Grace Sterling."

Dane just sighed and shook his head.

"Damn, I must be losing a step." Dane commented.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much; I did get a lot of advice on my security from a number of sources, including Cam Watanabe." She said with a smirk. "I guess I should thank you on pointing out some areas of improvement."

She stood up, confronting Dane.

"So, is there a strike team or something about to come through the windows?" He asked her.

"No, nothing like that. Do you think I want it getting out someone beat my security with a can of Dr Pepper and a shuriken?" She asked him. She held out her hand. "I just want to know what you were doing there and get back what's mine."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Dane told her. "That information could be of great value to me..."

"Yes, and it's of great value to me too...about nine figures and counting by the last estimate." She said sternly as she approached. "And it's only because I know your sons and by my good grace that you're not on a one-way-trip to a Government black site to spend the rest of your days in a windowless room."

"Good grace?" He asked. She just smiled.

"Is it bad I didn't even notice I said that?" She asked. "No pun intended."

"I'm sorry, but once I've checked this over and found what I'm looking for you can have..."

"Alright, how about we handle this another way?" She asked him. "Somehow I doubt you're looking for notes on my experimental programs, so how about you tell me what exactly you're looking for and I'll tell you if I can help you."

"Or I could just take this." He warned her. She cocked an eyebrow.

"You could try." She said confidently. Dane just sighed.

"I'm looking for a person, one of the subjects of some of your tests." Dane told her. Grace thought about it for a moment.

"You know that I'm bound by doctor-patient privilege, but...I'm morbidly curious." Grace answered. "Does this patient have a name?"

"Mariko Yoshida." He told her. Grace's expression gave away nothing, but considering the fact that among other things she had a security clearance second only to the President he sincerely doubted it was the first time she was asked uncomfortable questions. She started to pace.

"I did know Mariko." She admitted. "She came to us quite a few years ago. Late stage four leukaemia."

"You've said a lot for someone bound by doctor-patient privilege." Dane told her.

"Well, I'm making an allowance for two reasons." She assured him. "Firstly, I know who your kids are and where you're from so I know you're able to keep a secret."

"And the other?" He asked her.

"Doctor-patient privilege ends once the patient dies." She told him. "I'm sorry to say that your friend died about seven years ago."

Dane was afraid of that. He had always known it was a possibility, especially once he learned Mariko had fallen ill, but to have it confirmed was a blow nothing could have prepared him for. As much as he knew he could never truly make up for all the harm he had done Mariko, he had hoped that he would at least be able to try and make up some of what he owed her. Now, that chance was gone.

"Are you sure?" He asked her.

"I should be, I oversaw her autopsy personally." Grace said to him sympathetically. "I do with all of my experimental patients. Mariko came to us with an estimated six months to live. With our treatments she had another four years...sadly it wasn't enough, but I'm hopeful that one day, it will be. Mariko was one of the bravest people I've known."

"I can't believe she's gone." Dane stated. She reached out a hand for the flash drive, but he pulled it away. "Mariko, she had a daughter..."

"Yes, Angela I remember!" Grace said with a little hint of a smile. "She was a curious kid, really loved all the computers and the lab equipment."

"What happened to her?" Dane asked.

"We couldn't track down any family. There was no father listed on her birth certificate and Mariko died without any next of kin." Grace told him. "She ended up as a ward of the state."

"You mean she ended up in foster care?" He asked her. Grace just nodded. Dane put the flash drive into her hand. "Where?"

"With all due respect Mr Romero, I'm not sure it's what Mariko would have..."

"I have a personal stake in knowing what happened to her." Dane told her. "Please, if you know anything..."

"Wait, are you trying to tell me that Mariko's daughter is...?" Dane just nodded.

"You can give me a blood test if you don't believe me." Dane told her. Grace was about to answer. "You were treating Mariko for cancer, do you expect me to believe you didn't check out her direct family for signs they might be at risk? I know you have to have taken samples at some point."

"I believe you." Grace told him. "If you hold on, I'll see what I can do about finding her."

Dane handed her back the flash drive, at which she left. Dane flopped down onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo was wrapping up his show. The final battle had given the audience all the action they would hope for and more. All Cosmo really cared about was the fact that the audience loved every minute of it. Although the Galactic Ninjas caused no end of headaches on the ship and cost him a fortune to hire, he was at least getting his money's worth out of them.

"Oh, the dreaded sting of love. Venoma, you fought your way into our hearts." Cosmo announced. "Now, farewell, and stay tuned for another exciting episode of Galaxy..."

He was grabbed roughly and his microphone ripped from his hands before he was thrown across the stage. Wolvermean had stormed onto the stage in a blind rage. He stood before the audience, flailing angrily.

"Rangers! You have destroyed my friends, you have taken my followers, and you have disgraced the name of the Galactic Ninjas!" He roared, striking a pose. A powerful explosion flared up behind him, blasting Cosmo into the rear wall as he finally got back to his feet. She slithered down the wall, leaving only the outline where he had taken the blast, the rest of the wall burned and covered in soot. "You may think it's over, but you've only sealed your own face by incurring my wrath! I may be the last, but there is a reason I am the leader of the Galactic Ninjas! Soon I'll leave you begging for the mercy of my blade! I'm going to give you a battle you'll NEVER FORGET!"

With that, he threw the microphone over his shoulder and stormed off the stage, while Wrench went to help Cosmo up and get him to the medical bay. Odious watched all of this with an evil smirk as Badonna returned.

"So, did you get it?" She asked.

"The day was not a total loss." Badonna said as she handed Venoma's Ninja Amulet to Odious. "So, should we let Wolvermean have his shot? Or should I arrange a little 'accident' in his training session?"

"There's no reason to deny ourselves a little entertainment." Odious chuckled. "You have to admit, as a distraction; those Galactic Ninjas have been a wonderful investment. No one's any the wiser."

Back at the Ranger Base, the team had assembled after the battle with Venoma.

"OK, so that's three Galactic Ninjas down." Calvin said, marking up a dry-wipe board with the score. The score at present was 3/?. The problem of course was the question mark. "Of course without knowing how many there were to begin with, it's a little difficult to get too excited."

"At least we can be glad that so far we're three and oh?" Levi offered.

"Sorry to be that guy but, the problem is the bad guys only need to win once." Calvin reminded them.

"Cal, you can be such a misery guts. Normally it's Brody that's the pessimist." Sarah stated.

"HEY!" Brody protested.

"Sorry, but you kind of are at times." Sarah pointed out. "Back me up here, would you Preston?"

"Hmm?" Preston asked, looking up from his tablet at the back of the room. "Uh...yeah, sure whatever."

"Cal, you know that I don't hold the whole Venoma thing against you right?" Hayley asked. "You were under a spell."

"I know, but it just feels like...I don't know. I guess I always thought nothing would be stronger than how I feel about you." He told her. Sarah just feigned gagging as he and Hayley kissed.

"Well, that still leaves us with one thing. The Green Ranger disappeared...again." Brody sighed.

"Yeah, but...I don't know if we'd have done it without her." Sarah stated. "I mean, she and Preston took Venoma down right Presto?"

"Yeah...yeah, that's right." Preston said, looking at the screen and doing something with his hands. His fingers were kind of tangled awkwardly and he had a confused look on his face.

"Preston, what are you doing?" She asked.

"Yeah, can we have a little focus here please?" Brody asked. "I mean, it turned out OK, but did you really think lending her an Element Star was a good idea?"

"I made a judgement call..."

"It was MY Element Star!" Brody reminded him. Preston just shrugged.

"Look, all I know is the Nexus Prism seems to think she's worthy and if she was here, it'd probably make her one of her own." Preston answered.

"He kind of has a point." Sarah said as she looked to him.

"I don't know, it's just...she still broke into my place."

"Well, no one's perfect." Sarah said with a little sucking of her teeth. "Technically I found out about the Amber Beach team when a monster switched bodies with me."

"Well, that's as may be but, we still have no idea who she is, but she knows who we are." Brody stated. "Why hide from us? Why the big secret?"

"You are aware of the irony of a life-long ninja complaining about secrecy right?" Hayley teased him. Sarah pointed and laughed a little, appreciating the shot at the obvious flaw in Brody's logic. Preston could hear that this was going to descend into one of the usual team arguments and turned his attention back to the screen, starting up the video. He was once again watching videos trying to figure out how to begin to apologise to Sandy. He didn't doubt for a moment he'd never be able to fully explain what happened in English, never mind American Sign Language, but he hoped maybe to find something simple he could do to show the sincerity of the thought behind his apology.

"Look, we don't keep secrets from each other!" Brody commented. "Meanwhile she's running around, appearing and disappearing whenever she feels like it! She's not up to speed..."

"That's what training is for!" Sarah reminded him. "None of us were great when we started; once we figure out who she is we can work with her on that."

"She can't even follow directions!" Brody stated. Preston saw something on his video and rewound it. "I mean, we've tried telling her what to do but she's just..."

"Uh...guys? I've got to go...OK bye!" Preston said as he got up and scrambled away. The others just stared at him.

"What do you suppose that was about?" Hayley asked. Sarah just shrugged.

In another part of the school, Emma and Sandy were talking after the battle. Sandy was thoroughly giddy about the most successful battle she'd had to date.

"I'm telling you, it was great! Preston was so amazing!" Sandy told her sister. "It was like...we finally clicked! He got what I wanted to do and he was..."

"Yeah, yeah, that's great, but what about that other monster you were talking about?" Emma asked her.

"Yeah, I thought she was there for an ambush but...she didn't do much of anything." Sandy told her. "She just took something from the battlefield while the Rangers were leaving."

"What did she take?" Emma asked her.

"How would I know? I was too far away!" Sandy told her. "Whatever it was, it was small and..."

"Wait, hold up." Emma told her, gesturing behind her. Sandy turned around just as Preston arrived.

"Oh, um...hey Preston." Sandy said a little awkwardly. "Um...I was just..."

"Look, Sandy...can we talk alone for a moment?" Preston asked her. Emma just rolled her eyes and headed away, leaving them alone. Sandy just sighed.

"Sandy, about before..."

"Look, you don't have to explain." Sandy assured him, before suddenly remembering something. If he didn't know who she was, he would have no reason to think she wouldn't be angry. He'd be expecting her to be angry. "Uh...I mean...if you didn't want to go..."

"That's just the thing, I did want to go. I just...didn't think I should accept." Preston told her. "And you know why."

"I'm not sure I..."

Preston pulled out his tablet and played the video. It showed someone holding a fist over her heart and rotating it in a small motion. It was the sign for "I'm Sorry." Sandy looked to him tentatively, but Preston was nodding. In one of their battles, Sandy had got in the way of one of the Rangers' attacks. She'd made the gesture instinctively.

"I know you're the Green Ranger!" He told her. Sandy leapt at him, wrapping her arms around him. She couldn't betray the promise to her sister, but it seemed that Preston had figured it out himself.


	24. The Final Piece of the Puzzle

The Rangers were in the lab when Preston returned, opening up the secret entrance in the fan.

"Oh, hey Preston, you're back." Brody stated. "You left in kind of a hurry."

"Uh…yeah, I had something I needed to take care of." He told them. "Guys, I have a bit of a surprise for you all."

"Well that sounds ominous." Calvin stated. "The last surprise you gave us involved turning my girlfriend invisible."

"Don't listen to him Preston." Sarah reprimanded the Gold Ranger. "What is it?"

"Alright, wait right here." Preston told them. They all looked around in confusion as he left the room. He returned a short time later with Sandy. They all looked a little alarmed as he brought her in.

"Oh, hey Sandy!" Levi said with a little trepidation in his voice. "Um…I guess Preston told you about our…uh…"

"Programming club!" Hayley rushed out, gesturing to all the computers and coming up with the first thing that came into her head. "Yeah, we're really into our coding and our um…Preston, don't you think you should have asked before…"

"Guys, she knows." Preston told them. "In fact, Sandy has known about us for a while."

"Sandy knows what?" Brody asked.

"I…I know you're the Rangers." She told them.

"Rangers?" Calvin asked with a nervous laugh. "What makes you think we're…"

"Cal, trust me, she knows." Preston told them. "Go ahead Sandy."

Sandy just nodded, before pulling her Power Star out of her pocket. Everyone in the room just stared at it, before looking up at her.

"You?" Hayley asked. "You're the Green Ranger?"

"You knew?" Calvin asked him.

"Well, more like…I figured it out." Preston told them. "As in, I figured it out about ten minutes ago?"

"So that's why you ran out of here!" Sarah surmised.

"Wait, how did you figure that out?" Calvin asked.

"Well, I…um…uh…"

"Wait, now this makes so much sense!" Sarah said as she considered what she was hearing. "Guys, you remember how one of the problems was the Green Ranger didn't seem to know what we were doing?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah?" Levi asked.

"Guys, because of the helmets she couldn't see our faces." Sarah reminded them.

"Of course!" Hayley sighed. "She couldn't see what we were saying so she didn't know what we were planning to do."

"It…it really was pretty difficult." Sandy told them apologetically. "Look, I know I've not been the greatest Ranger. I'm not the best fighter and because of the helmets…"

"Wait, that doesn't need to be an issue does it?" Sarah asked. "I mean, now that we know, maybe we can figure something out. Like…maybe you can teach us a few signs or something?"

"You want me to teach you sign language?" Sandy asked.

"Well, it's better that than we keep running into each other on the battlefield, right?" Calvin asked. "I mean, we are meant to keep our identities secret so we really can't uncover our faces when we fight. Not to mention I don't know about you guys, but…I kind of like having another layer between the bad guys' weapons and my skull."

"Guys, are you serious?" Brody asked.

"Brody, this…this is something we've been trying to figure out for a while." Sarah told him. "Now we know…"

"Yeah, I'm glad I know now." Brody told them. "But now we just have to ask if we can trust her."

"Hey!" Preston protested.

"Dude, that's way harsh!" Hayley agreed.

"Aren't we forgetting something? How she got that Power Star in the first place?" Brody asked them. "She's known about us for months! She's been following us around, sneaking around…she…she broke into my home!"

"He kind of has a point on that one." Calvin said, earning himself a glare from Hayley, Sarah and Preston. "What? I'm not saying I'm…you know…against her, just…Brody has a point about this."

"Look, I'm sorry about the farm. I'm not denying I was there." She told him. "I guess I really can't deny that I was there. Sometimes, when I've messed things up really badly, I wish I hadn't, but I did. Now, I think I'm stuck with this thing."

"Guys, the Nexus Prism isn't exactly known for making stars for no reason." Mick reminded them. "If it made a Power Star for Sandy…"

"I'm not saying that maybe there wasn't a reason the Nexus Prism chose her." Brody said as he looked straight at Sandy. "All I want to know is why?"

"Why?" She asked, gulping as she saw the way he was staring at her.

"Why the lies? Why the secrets?" He asked her.

"I…I, um…" She started to stammer, looking around the room. They were good questions, and she could fully understand why they wanted to know the answers. They deserved the answers! If she did carry on as the Green Ranger, if they didn't try to find a way to transfer her Power Star to someone else, if they were going to put their lives in her hands, then they needed to know that she could be trusted, and right now she was finding it difficult to think of a reason they should. However, she couldn't stop thinking about Emma and her promise to her. "I…I can't tell you."

"Why not?" Sarah asked.

"I just can't, alright?" Sandy asked them. "I want to, believe me I do, but I just can't!"

"So, it's alright for you to have secrets but not us?" Levi asked her.

"Hey, come on guys!" Preston said, interjecting into the situation. "Sandy said she can't tell us, maybe she has a reason."

"What reason would be good enough?" Calvin asked him.

"Come on, it's not like all of us haven't hidden something at one time or another." Preston reminded them.

"Not from each other." Hayley said. "Look, I'm sorry Sandy, but we need to be able to trust each other completely. There's no room for any doubt in any of this. Every person in this room has saved my life, and I've saved every one of theirs at least once."

"Sarah, come on." Preston begged her. Sarah just looked apologetic. She hated siding against Preston, but she could understand where the others were coming from. They all had to rely on each other with their lives. It was a lot of trust to ask, and even more to give. Just then, the entrance opened. They all looked to the entrance, Sandy only turning once she realised, they were all staring. She saw Emma coming in.

"Whoa, this is…now this is nice!" She stated. "I could probably make some suggestions but…"

"Emma?" Brody asked. "What are you doing here?" Emma just stood for a moment, stuck like a deer in headlights as the team stared at her. She was always a deeply analytical person. She had thought about and figured out the most likely results of any scenario she could think of for how the time she would reveal the truth would go. Feeling the general vibe of confusion and defensiveness coming her way, this wasn't exactly the WORST case scenario she had ever imagined…but it sure as hell was up there.

Over in Stone Canyon, Dane was waiting in his hotel room as Grace had told him.

Patience was just one of many of the main attributes of the ninja. It wasn't unknown for a ninja to wait days, weeks, months, even years for the perfect moment to execute their objective. Opportunity and timing were vital to the success of their objectives and sometimes that meant foregoing a quick resolution in order to wait for a different opportunity that better served their purposes.

This, however, was testing his limits. Although Grace had promised to return with whatever information she could find on the location of Mariko's daughter, and he already knew she had access to much greater resources than he did, he was still in the situation of hoping that she was playing straight with him. The hotel room was a budget place and so there really wasn't much to do in the room. The television quickly exhausted its appeal, he'd rattled through the complimentary paper in a matter of minutes and he had even listened to the radio for a little while until he could no longer put up with it.

He had started to do some exercises instead, opting to do something practical with his time. In his travels it wasn't as though he hadn't had opportunity to exercise. A couple of breaking and entering jobs, and a couple of fights with the Scorpion Cartel had given him all the exercise he would have needed, but it was never a bad idea to keep on top of things.

He was using the door-frame to the bathroom to perform some pull-ups. He was in the middle of one before his instincts kicked in. He just smiled.

"You know, I've met some students at the Wind Ninja Academy that could learn a few things from you." He stated as he lowered himself to the floor.

"I'll take the compliment." She replied as she tossed him a t-shirt. Dane pulled it on.

"So, you've got no problem with breaking and entering but you're uncomfortable around a guy who's half-dressed?" He asked her. She went to the doorframe and hopped up, grabbing it.

"Please, you're young enough to be my kid." She told him as she started performing some flawless, controlled pull-ups.

"Wow, good form." Dane complimented her. "You're in pretty good shape."

"For an old lady?" She asked him.

"I didn't say that." He answered. She lowered herself down to the floor.

"Regular exercise is a part of my routine. I've always liked to keep active." She told him. "But it helps when you have a little boost too."

"Boost?" He asked her.

"One of Promethea's main areas of research is medical devices." She informed him as she straightened out her suit. "It turns out you can get through quite a bit of ethical red tape and bureaucracy if you're your own guinea pig."

"That's…interesting to know." He stated. "So, you're what? The six-million-dollar woman?"

"More like three point two billion and climbing." She said with a smile as she tapped her head. "Trust me, there's plenty up here still to offer. The rest of it? It just makes sure I've got plenty of time to use it."

"So, you have that information for me?" Dane asked her. She went to a briefcase she'd put down in the corner and opened it, bringing out a file. She handed it to him.

"I remember Angela. I remember her well. She was a really sweet kid." Grace told him. "Really curious. She loved spending time in the lab while her mom was getting her treatments. Mariko used to prefer her spending time there. She didn't want her to see…well…"

"It was bad?" Dane asked her. Grace just nodded.

"It really wasn't pretty towards the end." Grace told him. "You should know, I was with her right to the end. I didn't want her to be by herself when it came."

"I'm grateful someone was." Dane sighed. It was still one of his deepest regrets that there was nothing he could do to make up to Mariko the harm he had caused her. "Thank you for that."

"Like I said, she was probably one of the bravest people I've known." Grace replied. "There was an issue what to do about Angela. As far as we knew then there was no next of kin. Mariko didn't have any family when she passed, and since she didn't put a name on the birth certificate, we really didn't have a way to track down the father. I did everything I could to make sure Angela was taken care of, but she was taken into the foster care system. I used my influence to make sure she was kept in a good home. A few donations here and there and you can ask some pretty big favours."

"I can't believe you did all that for Mariko." Dane said, looking through the file. Grace just smiled.

"What can I say? I liked them." She told him. "I managed to track her down to a family. They took her in a few months after she was put in the care system. They've had her ever since."

"A foster family kept her that long?" He asked Grace. Grace just nodded.

"They're good people. She's had a good life by the looks of things." She told him. "There's just one more thing. You should know, Mariko made a request in her will."

"What kind of request?" Dane asked.

"She left pretty clear instructions about things she wanted me to do to keep Angela safe." She told him. "One of the things she asked us to do was change her name."

"You changed her name?" Dane asked. Grace just nodded. "Where is she now?"

Back at the lab, the Rangers were still staring at Emma as she struggled to find a way to begin. She had been waiting for this moment for a while, but it certainly wasn't the way she wanted it to come. She was hoping to have a lot more control over the situation, to be the one that brought up to them the fact that she knew, to explain to them why she had been so evasive with the truth. She had hoped that they would be a lot more used to her being around before she told them. She hadn't had much luck with making friends, and she didn't want to take any chances.

But when she had seen Sandy going with Preston, she knew that he had to have figured out Sandy's part in it all. Sandy was only even brought into all of this as a favour to her that had gotten out of hand. She hated dragging her sister into her misadventures, especially since it had caused her so much trouble. When she went into the lab, she knew what it had to be about and figured that the least she could do to make things right with her sister was not let her face the fallout with the team. Unfortunately, when it came time to pay the piper, it was a little difficult to know how to start the tune.

"Well? What are you doing here?" Brody demanded again. "How do you know about any of this?"

"Well…uh…"

"HOW did she get in here?" Calvin asked. "I thought we were the only ones that knew how that entrance worked."

"Emma, this is a really bad idea." Sandy told her. "You should…"

"It's…its fine." Emma stated. "I guess you're all wondering what this is about?"

"Kind of!" Hayley said with gesture that screamed 'what the hell?'

"Emma, you didn't need to…"

"Sandy, I…I appreciate everything, I know you did everything you could but…I guess I was never going to keep all this to myself forever." She said, taking a deep breath as she looked to the others. "I'm sorry about all this, but whatever you do, please don't blame Sandy. She's been the greatest through all of this. Anything she's done, she's only done because she's an amazing sister."

"I'm confused." Calvin stated. "Sandy broke into the barn, that I get, but what do you have to do with all this?"

"I only got Sandy involved because she has certain…talents that I don't." She told them. "I'm sure you've all noticed I'm not exactly the most co-ordinated or graceful person around. The break-in at the farm, the missions as Green Ranger, she only did those because I asked her to."

"Yeah, still not really helping with the whole confusion thing." Brody stated. "Why did you do this?"

"I just…I wanted to be sure I was right before I came to you." She told them. "Then when Sandy got that Power Star, we had to use it and…then it just became harder and harder to say anything. I just wanted to wait until you got to know us, got used to us being around."

"Until we got to know Sandy?" Hayley asked. She looked to Brody.

"Until I you got to know me." She stated. Brody got a disgruntled look on his face.

"Wait, you wanted to get close to me?" He asked her. "Is that what all this has been about?"

"Well, yeah, it is…"

"This is all because what? You have some kind of crush on me or something?" He asked.

"What? EW GROSS!" She shrieked, backing away. Sarah just scratched her head.

"Alright, now I'm officially completely lost." She admitted.

"So, what is this about?" Brody asked her. "Why are you so interested in me?"

"Because…because Emma's only a given name." She told them. "My name was changed before I was put into the foster system to keep me safe."

She took a deep breath, before pulling out a diary. She handed it to Brody.

"The name on my birth certificate is Angela Yoshida." She told him. Levi came to Brody's side as he opened the diary, looking inside. The writing inside was very distinctive, and very familiar.

"Yoshida?" Calvin asked. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"Mariko." Levi and Brody chorused together.

"You're…you're Mariko's daughter?" Brody asked her. "Which makes you…"

"Your half-sister." She concluded nervously. "Hey big brother."

"These diaries, they…they were written after Mariko left the Academy." Brody stated. "How do we know that you're really…?"

"Look, I'm willing to submit to any tests you want. A swab, blood test, bone marrow…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Mick said, interjecting. "I…uh…appreciate the commitment but, I think a swab should be more than enough."

Emma let him take a swab of the inside of her cheek while Brody checked out the diary some more. Emma just looked to him.

"I'm really sorry I wasn't straight with you, but I just…I spent my whole life with those diaries. It was all I had left after mom died." She told him. "I've spent so many years trying to find you, and then when the Rangers showed up and you started using Wind Ninja Academy techniques, I just had to know."

"Mick, how is that test coming?" Brody asked. Hayley just went to his side.

"Brody, ease up a little, will you?" She asked.

"How can I?" He asked.

"That might be your little sister." Hayley reminded him.

"Exactly, it MIGHT be!" Levi told her. "It isn't like we haven't been stung before."

"There's no 'might' about it." Mick told them, showing them a screen. "The sample's a match. The odds against it being a coincidence are infinitesimal."

"So, so it really is true." Brody gasped, looking to the screen. "You really are my half-sister."

"I'm sorry about all the secrets." She told him. "I just…I really wanted to be sure you'd like me, that you wouldn't turn on me when you found out who I was before I approached."

Brody could see her starting to tear up and a strong instinct came over him. He grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm sorry about all of this." She told him. "But now that I've found you, now I've come this far, I was hoping maybe I could help you find Aiden."

"You…want to help me find Aiden?" Brody asked, looking to Levi.

"Yeah, I know where you are but…when I was looking into the family, I found out you all disappeared without a trace." She told him. "I figured out where you are, but I've still to find Aiden. I was hoping we could do that together."

"Really? You don't say?" Brody asked, looking to the others. There were a few sniggers and the team had to try hard not to laugh. Brody didn't mean to tease, but after being caught so far behind Emma on this, it was nice to think that there was a surprise they could give her.

"Yes." She told them. "Look, I…I know things weren't ideal between mom and dad, but I just want to know you all. I just want to know where I came from." She told him. "I'm really good at this kind of thing. Look at how I found you! I swear, if you let me help, I'm sure we can find Aiden."

"You think you can help us find Aiden, do you?" Brody asked, looking to Levi. "What do you think Levi?"

"I think that this is getting a little mean." Levi told him, coming over to her. Emma just looked to him completely confused.

"OK, what's going on?" She asked him.

"Let's just say you aren't the only one that changed their name." Levi told her. Emma looked between Brody and Levi as they stood next to each other, pointing between the two of them. "Surprise!"

Emma let out a huge scream as she ran at him, wrapping her arms around him. Everyone else in the room except for Sandy had to cover their ears as she let out an excited screech and started babbling incoherently.

"Jeez! Thank God this room's been soundproofed!" Calvin stated. Sandy was just smiling as she saw her sister hugging her brothers. Preston looked to her and smiled.

"She was right about one thing." He said to her. "You really are the greatest sister."

"She's a major pain in my ass, and she causes me way more trouble than anyone else in my life." Sandy stated. "But seeing her like this? That makes it all worth it."

"Sandy, about the dance…"

"Yes." She told him. "Yes, I'd love to go with you."

Preston laced his hand with hers as the team just watched the Romero family reunion. They were sure that there was a whole lot of lost time for them to catch up on, but for now, they were happy to see a family that had been torn apart by their war finally reunited.


	25. Do You Feel Like Dancing?

As night came, the team were getting ready for the dance. Levi and Brody were eager to get to know their new little sister, but with Levi already having agreed to chaperone the dance, he couldn't now pull out at the last minute. He had promised that soon he would arrange something for them all to get together, Brody, Emma, himself and Tom, but for now they were just getting ready for the night ahead.

While it wasn't the closest of their homes to the school, they had chosen to go to Preston's place before the dance. Partly because it was the biggest, but mostly because Marcus had also agreed to let them use his driver and the limo. Emma and Sandy had been invited to get ready with them, and it was a little bit of a culture shock to say the least.

"Wow...this place is just...I think this room is bigger than our house!" Emma commented, looking around Preston's room. The Blue Ranger cringed a little at this. He wasn't exactly ashamed of his family's wealth, his dad had worked hard for it all and had earned every penny he had spent on his empire from very humble beginnings, but he was always a little self-conscious when people pointed out the difference in lifestyle between him and most of the rest of the people he knew. It wasn't like he went out of his way to show off but it was a little hard to not feel like people thought that's what he was doing when some of them needed to get budget brand clothing or second-hand school books while he sometimes got a ride to school by a private driver.

"Not quite...but it's definitely bigger than our living room." Sandy answered. "The house is actually pretty big, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Mom and dad were in the foster care system too and opened a group home when they got married. Emma and I have been there the longest, most of the kids are short-term care but sometimes it gets pretty crowded."

"How crowded?" Brody asked.

"I think the most we had in the house at one time was...five kids including ourselves? And our parents." Emma said a little matter-of-factly. All of them just stared.

"Seven people?" Hayley asked. "Wow, that's quite something!"

"Yeah, it takes some getting used to." Sandy agreed. Just then, the door opened and Marcus came in with some pizzas.

"Your delivery arrived!" Marcus said, setting them all down. "Sarah, it's always a pleasure to see you. Tell me, how is Al these days?"

"He's doing well." Sarah said, nodding her head and smiling politely. While she and Preston were good friends, and indeed had dated briefly, things between Marcus and Al were a little frosty and not without reason. A lot of water had gone under the bridge between them but now that there was a little distance, they both were starting to get a little more civil about each other. "He's got quite a few clients, his business is doing well."

"That's great to hear." Marcus told her. "Ah, I see a couple of new faces. Preston, would you mind introducing me?"

"Sure thing dad. This is Emma, and this is her sister Sandy." Preston said, introducing them. Marcus looked between them and Preston was internally begging him not to say anything else. He could tell the thought process going on in his head, it was the same as anyone else when they saw Sandy and Emma and heard they were sisters.

"Well, it's always lovely to meet Preston's new friends." Marcus said, causing Preston to breathe a little sigh of relief. "Alright, well, I guess you don't need some old man crowding your style. I'll leave you all to it."

"Thanks dad." Preston replied, turning back to the others. "Hey, Calvin, don't hog all the pepperoni!"

"I was hungry!" Calvin protested.

"Say, where's the Hawaiian?" Hayley asked. As the others fought over the pizza, Sarah just sat back quietly, watching them all. She'd just as soon skip the whole thing. They had a lot more to worry about than a dance. Brody and Levi had a new sister to get to know. They had a new Ranger to get up to speed. It all seemed a little silly to be getting worked up over a party. Still, part of being part of a team was sometimes going along with what the others wanted to do, even if it seemed more than a little pointless.

Over at the school, the preparations for the party were well underway. Levi was just checking the sound system while Mrs Finch, Mick and Principal Hastings put the final touches to the refreshments and the decorations.

"OK, I think I finally found the problem!" Levi said as he worked on the sound system. He fiddled with one of the connections, causing a crackling in the speakers, before suddenly it burst into life. He smiled as music started to play over the sound system and the lights came to life.

"Nice job Mr Weston!" Principal Hastings congratulated him. Levi just shrugged as he came out from behind the sound system.

"Well, all those years around A/V guys on tour, you tend to pick up a few things." Levi told her. Principal Hastings just offered a hand to Mick.

"I just love this song." She told him. "Would you do me the honour?"

"I would be honoured." Mick replied as he accepted her hand and led her onto the dance floor. Levi and Mrs Finch exchanged a little look as they saw them starting to dance. He went back to the sound system to start changing a few settings.

"Alright, now we've got this thing working, let's see if we can get the best from the acoustics in the room." He commented, looking over to where Mrs Finch had returned to inflating balloons for the evening.

In another part of the city, Victor pulled up outside a house in a limo. He sat in the back, fidgeting uncomfortably as he pulled on the collar of his tuxedo.

"Are you sure about this?" Monty asked him.

"Of course, I'm just...not used to wearing a tux." Victor told him. Monty just shook his head.

"No, I mean THIS!" He clarified, gesturing to himself in the driver's seat. "I'm not sure, but...don't you need like, a special licence to drive a limo or something?"

"It's got four wheels and an engine." Victor pointed out.

"Yeah, and so does an RV! That doesn't mean I can drive one of those either without a truck driver's licence!" Monty responded.

"Look, we managed to borrow this from my uncle, I couldn't afford a limo and driver but Lori made it clear there would be no date if we didn't have one!" He stated.

"Yeah, that's another thing, are you sure...?"

"Here, she's coming!" Victor stated, gesturing to Monty. "Quick, roll up the partition."

"But..."

"Just...do it before she sees you!" Victor rushed out. Monty just rolled his eyes and rolled up the partition just as Lori got to the side of the limo. Victor got out and held open the door for her.

"Good evening my lady!" He greeted her, gesturing her inside. "Your carriage awaits!"

"Now, this is really nice! You've really outdone yourself Victor!" She complimented him. Victor was just standing between her and the door, hoping that she couldn't see the hotel logo on the door since he was technically 'borrowing' it without asking. "Well?"

Victor didn't know what she was waiting for, until she presented her wrist to him. He suddenly realised she was waiting for the corsage she had asked him to buy.

"OH! Of course! Silly me!" He said, reaching inside. He pulled out five different varieties, laying them out on the roof. "I...wasn't sure which one you wanted..."

"I really like orchids." She told him, before sucking her teeth. "Oh...white."

"What?" He asked.

"It's just...I really had my heart set on a pink orchid." She said to him.

"I...don't have one." He responded. He saw the way she was glaring at him. "I can get one! Yes, I can get one! I'm sure someone will still have one and...driver! A florist!"

With that, he and Lori got into the back of the limo and pulled away.

A little while later, the dance was in full swing. Everyone was having a great time as the music played and drinks were passed around.

Calvin and Hayley were just finishing up a dance as the music changed, heading off the floor for a rest. Hayley saw Sarah sitting on her own in a corner.

"Say, get us some punch would you?" She asked him. "And make sure it's not spiked!"

She headed over, sitting next to the Pink Ranger.

"Good night huh?" She asked. Sarah just shrugged.

"It's not bad." She answered.

"Come on, you love this kind of thing! Last time there was a school dance I couldn't drag you and Calvin off the floor!" Hayley commented. Sarah just sighed.

"I don't know, I'm just not in the mood alright?" She asked. "I mean, we've got a new Ranger, shouldn't we be getting her ready? Not to mention I've got a new weapon I've still not finished and..."

"Hey, there's time for all of that." Hayley assured her. "You are allowed to relax at times as well you know."

She looked over to where Preston and Sandy were slow-dancing. She just looked to her.

"Are you sure you're as alright with that as you said you are?" Hayley asked her.

"What?" She asked, before looking across as Hayley gestured with her head. "Of...Of course I am! What do you think I am?"

"I think you're human!" She told her. "It's not that long ago you and Preston were together..."

"And we both realised that was a mistake!" Sarah assured her. "Trust me, Preston and I are amazing buds and...just look at them! They're adorable! It's like watching a pair of kittens or something!"

"Are you sure you're not protesting a little too much?" Hayley asked. Sarah just groaned.

"I said I'm fine alright?" She asked. "I just...don't feel like dancing."

"OK, that's fine." Hayley replied. "Just, know we're here if you want to talk."

"Go dance with your boyfriend!" Sarah told her. "I'll be fine."

Hayley just patted Sarah's hand, before heading off to find Calvin, leaving Sarah to sit by herself.

Sandy and Preston were in the middle of the room, gently swaying in time to the music. Preston couldn't take his eyes off her as she looked up to him.

"I'm really glad you agreed to come here tonight." Preston told her.

"I really wanted to." She replied, biting her lip nervously.

"Listen, if it wasn't for Venoma, for that arrow...I'd have said yes in a heartbeat." Preston explained to her. "I thought I'd blown it, but, when I thought you might be under her spell..."

"It's alright, I know...I understand." She told him. "There are a lot of guys who wouldn't have turned me down like that, but to know that you did, even if you thought it was risking what we had...It shows me that you're exactly the kind of guy I always thought you were."

"You're amazing, do you know that?" He asked her. "And I don't mean just because of...you know...that other thing." She just giggled.

"Yeah, I don't think I've exactly covered myself in glory on that side of things." She answered.

"Hey, none of us were great when we started." Preston told her. "In one of our first battles, Brody took his cue from a computer that was giving us advice that literally made everything worse. You learn."

"I imagine it's a pretty steep learning curve." She said with a smile. "Kind of swim or drown."

"It can seem like that." Preston replied. "But...you'll have some pretty good teachers."

"I hope so." She told him. "I'd rather give this back than put any of you in danger."

"And that is one of the things that makes you the right person for the job." Preston replied. "The thing about power is, those that go looking for it are rarely the ones that should have it. Power should be used to help others. The fact you're willing to give it up already puts you way ahead of a lot of other people on the curve."

"I'm glad you think so." She replied. Preston reached to her chin, drawing her in closer.

"I know so." He answered, before pressing his lips to hers. As he parted from her, he looked into her eyes, panicking for a moment as he recalled his history with kissing. Fortunately, seeing the look, the beaming smile coming back at him, he could tell she felt the same way about it he did.

Just then, there was a commotion by the door. Everyone turned to watch as Victor came into the room, struggling with a whole bunch of boxes and bags as he came in with Lori. She made a huge gesture to the crowd.

"Well, the King and Queen have arrived, now this party can really get started!" She called out. "Mr Weston, crank it up!"

Levi just shrugged and cranked up the music as Lori started taking bags from Victor, handing them out to all her friends. Sarah, who was over by the punch bowl getting herself a drink, just rolled her eyes at the spectacle.

"Um...Lori? Sweetie?" Victor asked tentatively. "Not that I'm complaining, but...I thought all of these were for you."

"Oh, but they are all for me silly!" She told him, handing one of her friends a bracelet. "There's nothing I like more than being generous to all my friends!"

"I...guess that makes sense." Victor answered. "Can we go get something to eat or something?"

"But we've only just arrived, and we have so much still to hand out!" She told him.

"Well, yeah, but...I thought we'd spend at least some of the night together." He stated. Lori just looked to him and took a little glass unicorn ornament out of one of the bags. She dangled it between her fingers.

"You know, the legend was that the unicorn was the horse that could never be captured." She said mockingly, before dropping it to the floor where it shattered. "OOPS."

"But...but...I...you..." He stammered.

"I said we'd go to the dance together if you got me everything I wanted." She told him with an evil little smirk. "No unicorn, no me."

She and her friends all took the last of the boxes and bags from Victor, who was looking around as people started laughing.

"So long Victor." She laughed. Victor looked horrified as everyone started laughing at him and pointing. He fled from the dance to a chorus of mocking. Sarah slammed down her drink and stormed over to Lori, grabbing her and spinning her to face her.

"You're a real bitch Lori, do you know that?" Sarah yelled at her.

"What? I didn't force Victor to buy all this stuff; he did that on his own!" She laughed. "He was so pathetic the way he was running around after me, pining and begging like a little puppy! I just made the best of it!"

"You never had any intention of going to the dance with him did you?" Sarah asked her.

"Wow! You really are quick! I can see why everyone says you're the smartest kid in school." Lori said sarcastically. "Anyway, what's it to you? Everyone knows you hate Victor as much as anyone!"

"I don't hate Victor!" Sarah snapped. "He's...well...OK, he can be dumb and he can be cocky and he can be totally full of himself but he doesn't deserve that!"

Lori just crossed her arms defiantly as Sarah stood before her.

"He's fought monsters before. He's risked his life for this city. He...he was one of the ones that brought down Galvanax! You remember him?" Sarah yelled at her. "What have you ever done for anyone but yourself?"

"Victor's a loser." Lori told her. "I just made it plain for everyone to see."

"Trust me, you might be laughing now, but Victor isn't the worst person here." Sarah told her. "Not by a long shot."

With that, she walked out of the hall. After a long, uncomfortable silence, Levi started up some music.

"OK, how about we see some people on the dance floor?" He asked.

Outside the school, Sarah found Victor sitting on the grass, Monty trying to console him over what happened. She approached him, tapping Victor on the shoulder.

"Mind if I sit down?" She asked. "Monty, will you give us a minute?"

"I guess so." He replied. "I should really be getting this back anyway."

As he left, Sarah sat down with him. Victor wiped his eyes as he tried not to look at her.

"What Lori did, that was...that was a really shitty thing to do." Sarah stated.

"She's right though, isn't she?" He asked her. "I am pathetic! Even you were trying to tell me that."

"I...never said that exactly." She said a little tentatively. "I did thing trying to buy a date was maybe not the best idea but..."

She paused as she saw the dejected look on Victor's face and put a hand on his shoulder.

"The thing is, Victor, you do come across as a little bit of a caricature." She told him. He just looked at her.

"That's a really strange way of trying to make a guy feel better." He remarked. Sarah just nodded.

"I don't mean to pile it on, but...I kind of think a lot of people just don't really know you because all they see is this cartoon character you've built up around yourself." She told him. "When I first got here, the guy that bragged about all his trophies? The one that kept on going on about his six-pack abs and perfect teeth, the guy that is...well...he came off as kind of an idiot."

She moved a little closer.

"But the guy that saved a little kid from being beaten to hell by his own cousin? The guy that saved our asses in one of our first battles with a fire extinguisher? The guy that fought alongside us to defeat Galvanax? That guy is actually kind of a cool guy." She told him. "And maybe if more people saw that guy and not the other guy, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

"You really think so?" He asked her. Sarah just nodded.

"So, since Monty took the limo, how are you getting home?" She asked.

"Guess I'm walking." He answered. Sarah stood up, kicked off her high heels and offered him a hand.

"Want some company?" She asked him. Victor wiped his eyes, before taking her hand and standing up.

"You sure you don't want to go back inside?" He asked. She just shrugged.

"I didn't feel much like dancing anyway." She told him as they walked away.

Over at the Promethea hospital in Stone Canyon, Grace got back after delivering the file to Dane. It had taken a while for her to track down who Angela was now, and after telling Dane, she could hardly face going straight back so she took some time to stop for dinner.

She returned to the building, being met by her personal assistant.

"George, I'm barely in the door, you can at least wait until I get to my office." She groaned.

"Yes, of course, I'm sorry, it's just..."

"So, what are the latest results looking like?" She asked him.

"Things are going well on a number of projects." He told her. "I was trying to reach you..."

"How about Marx?" She asked.

"The therapist says his sessions are going really well." He told her. "The therapist is actually considering recommending a new program at a less secure site, perhaps even sending him home with access to regular therapy..."

"Well, it's going to be a hard sell in Summer Cove, but I know at least one teenager that's going to be happy to hear that." She said. "I've had a tiring day so unless there's anything urgent..."

"Ms. Sterling, there's someone here to see you." He told her. Grace just glared at him. "He's with the Silver Guardians. He was very insistent; I let him wait in your office."

"Alright, fine." She sighed. "Take my messages and wipe the rest of my schedule for the rest of the day."

She headed to her office, opening the door and stepping inside, before shutting it behind her. There was indeed a man in a Silver Guardians uniform standing in her office, with two others with him. He stood up, standing to attention and saluting. The woman with him did likewise, but a little more tentatively as though she had no idea why she was saluting. The other man just copied the others, but seemed to have no idea what they were doing.

"You know, you really don't have to do that. Officially I don't have an Armed Forces rank anymore." She told him, returning the salute before offering him a handshake which he accepted. "Though I am glad it's you and not Eric that came. How are you Wes?"

"I'm good. I just wish this was a social call." He responded. She pointed to the man on his right.

"OK, I know who that is. Koda, I thought you were doing a European Tour." She commented.

"I drop title last night. This much more important." Koda told her. Grace looked to the other arrival, the woman. "Now, you...I don't think I've seen you before."

"My name's Gemma, Ranger Operator Series Silver." She greeted her. "I come from another dimension."

"Well, that explains that then." Grace said in a far more casual way than Gemma was expecting. "I've kept track of everyone in Spandex here, so I figured it had to be something like that. What can I help you with?"

"Agent Sterling, we got a call from Jayden Shiba." He told her. "His husband Antonio went missing. We took a look and...well..."

He showed her some pictures from the Shiba House. Grace just sighed.

"Well, I think it's fair to say wherever he went he didn't go willingly." She answered.

"Antonio isn't exactly someone that goes down easily, and his morpher is also missing." Wes told her. "There aren't many creatures out there powerful enough to take him down."

"Any idea who it was?" She asked.

"Sledge." Koda stated. She just looked shocked.

"Sledge?" She asked. "But your team..."

"I spend long time fighting Sledge. I know his smell anywhere." Koda assured her. "I no understand either but it definitely Sledge."

"If Koda says it's Sledge, then I'm willing to believe him." Wes told her. "We did a little digging, and we found this isn't the first disappearance."

"Other Rangers have been disappearing?" She asked. "Who else?"

"It looks like they're picking their targets, people who are naturally reclusive, that people won't miss if they don't check in for a while." Gemma told her, showing her some pictures. "My brother's missing too, that's how I got brought into this."

"Gia...how could anyone miss the fact Gia's gone?" She asked.

"Her wife is missing too." Wes told her. "I don't know why this is happening, but I think we can all say that Rangers disappearing is not a good sign."

"Most definitely not." Grace agreed. "So, how can I help?"

"There was some radiation at the site of the attacks, radiation that doesn't come from this Earth." Wes explained. "Gemma managed to jump dimensions but we're going to need a fair bit of power if we're going to take ourselves and a team to get our friends back."

"Of course, I can spare something." Grace stated. "Any idea who you want to take?"

"I have someone in mind." Wes replied.

Back in Summer Cove, Sarah and Victor were walking down the street, laughing and joking as she walked him home. She didn't doubt that he had to still feel pretty low after everything that had happened, but she'd managed to get him to laugh at very least. They were now within sight of his house as they came down the street.

"I will still never get the sight of you running around with your ass on fire out of my head!" She told him. "It was like... 'oh, oh, oh, oh'!"

"Please, I was much more macho about it than that." He chuckled.

"Well...yeah, you got over that pretty quick." She told him. "You bounce back, that's what you do."

"It's something I've kind of had to do." He told her. "Mom's done her best, but when it's just been the two of us for so long, there's been quite a few times we've been down."

"That must have been hard." She replied as she looked to him. Just then, the lawn sprinklers went off, drenching both of them. Victor quickly pulled off his jacket, wrapping it around her.

"Sorry, that was..."

"It's...it's fine." She laughed. "Believe me, it's really..."

She looked to Victor, seeing the way his shirt was soaked through, plastered to his body. His incredible, muscular body.

"...fine." She whispered. They both looked into each other's eyes for a moment, before drawing in, kissing passionately.

Sarah woke up with a start, covered in sweat, throwing off her covers. Her heart was racing. She had left Victor at his house some time ago and had come home.

She brushed her hair back out of her face as she thought about her dream.

"Oh dear God, please no!" She said to herself.


	26. Distracting Dreams

Monday at school was usually a time of inevitably downbeat feelings in the school, but for the seniors at Sumer Cove High, normally having physical education in the morning, particularly on a warm day where the teacher would tend to choose to have the lesson outside would normally be about the best thing that could happen to them as far as returning to the school after the weekend.

For Sarah though, she really wasn't able to enjoy it. She had spent most of the weekend turning the dream over and over in her mind. She still couldn't believe that she'd actually had a dream about Victor Vincent of all people!

She was called up along with Calvin and Brody for one side of a volleyball team, with Victor, Hayley and Preston being called for the other side. She loved volleyball. Although she was athletic, she was really not terribly into ball games. She'd play the occasional game with her friends if they insisted, but she wasn't really terribly into most of the ball sports. Football, basketball, baseball…she just found it hard to see the point behind any of them. She was more into sports where she could see an objective. Racing, it was to finish the fastest. High jump, jump the highest. Archery, it was to hit the target and suchlike. She did understand the skill involved in those other pursuits; she just couldn't relate to them. But volleyball was the one exception. She just loved volleyball, especially when it meant they got to go outdoors and play.

She couldn't take her eyes off Victor as they lined up. This normally wouldn't be a problem in volleyball, except for the fact she was set up to mark Hayley. However, she couldn't stop looking over to him. Victor did seem a lot more upbeat than he had when she dropped him off at his house. Despite the humiliating experience of having Lori take him for a ride and ditch him at the dance in front of everyone, he had managed to bounce back as he was normally able to do. The fact that someone had spiked the punch bowl and there were a few other incidents that had hit YouTube as a result had somewhat helped take people's attention away from Victor's experience, but he was nothing, if not, resilient and had a habit of bouncing instead of breaking.

She didn't really get why she would be dreaming about him now though. She was human, so it wasn't as if she hadn't had dreams and fantasies about other people before, but Victor? Sure, he was kind of good looking, she could admit that before but, Victor? It was just a dream though wasn't it? Yeah, that had to be it. It was just something that her brain was doing to her as a way of giving itself some release. Right now, she had Odious to worry about, she had exams, college applications, homework…her brain was dealing with easily enough to be comfortably handled by three or four people so it made sense that sometimes it would wander. It would get things mixed up or confused, perhaps create little stories in itself just as a way of giving itself a little break…yes, that was it. That made perfect sense!

"Heads up!" Hayley called out, right before Sarah took a volleyball straight to the face. She fell over, her hand straying to her forehead as everyone crowded around her.

"Are you alright?" Brody asked her.

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine." Sarah replied in a murmur. "What happened?"

"Well, I hit the spike." Preston said regretfully, fidgeting a little nervously.

"Yeah, it was going right to you, how did you miss it?" Victor asked. Sarah just looked to him as he inspected the mark on her forehead and checked her eyes. It was a little amusing to think he was worried a light volleyball would cause any serious harm when she regularly took hits from monsters, but it was kind of sweet too. Was she smiling? She shook her head.

"Um…I guess I wasn't paying attention." She said, looking to her team mates. "Sorry about that."

"Alright, then we're picking up!" Victor said as he handed her the ball and ran back towards his own half of the court to re-join his team. "Alright, let's go, let's go! We've almost got this in the bag!"

"You take the serve." Brody told her. "Cal, you take the net. You guys are in so much trouble!"

"Oh really? Because last time I checked we were three points ahead!" Hayley teased him.

"Sarah, take the serve." Brody told her. Sarah got ready for the serve, but her eyes strayed once more to Victor. In the hot weather, his shirt was now covered in sweat. He pulled it off, tossing it aside as he stood ready to return the serve. Sarah leapt up to hit the serve…which went incredibly wild and rebounded straight off the back of Brody's head!

"OW!" He protested. "Sarah!"

"I'm…I'm sorry!" She said, wincing a little. "I…I slipped and…"

"Sarah, I'm on YOUR TEAM!" Brody reminded her.

"And with that foul ball, I think that makes the game ours!" Hayley replied as she high-fived Preston and Victor. Sarah was genuinely apologetic to Brody, but she still couldn't help looking at Victor.

"Alright class, that's almost time!" The teacher called out. "Everyone hit the showers and get changed!"

Dane was just arriving back at the Romero Farm after a long journey. The Greyhound didn't go to Millport, the nearest station was in Summer Cove, and from there he had to walk. He did make good time, however. Once he got a little outside the city and away from prying eyes, he did have the luxury of being able to engage in a little abuse of ninja-streak.

"Sorry Kanoi." He said as something of a pointless gesture since he had long since retired to much sunnier climates, though as a mark of respect to his one-time mentor as he streaked into the farmyard, coming to a stop. It seemed like so long ago he had left. He regretted the fact he had left before he could make amends to his sons. Like most of the sins of his past, he wasn't sure he would ever be able to.

Going inside, he dumped his bag in the corner and went to the couch, flopping down onto it.

He deeply regretted the decisions he had made in the past. He had always known about Mariko's feelings for him. It was evident from a very young age that she always wanted something that Dane would never be able to give her. Fate was cruel in giving her such devotion and passion for him and yet never giving him those feelings in return. As a young man, he never wanted to believe in fate because he defiantly wished to believe that the world was simply too random, with too many choices and turns in the road for anyone to have a path set out for them. As time went on, he never wanted to believe it because he couldn't imagine why any pre-determined path would be so cruel as to give one of the best friends, he'd ever known feelings that he would never be able to return.

When he met his wife, he understood what Mariko must have felt for him. He could never imagine wanting to be with another as long as he lived. The only thing that was ever missing from their lives, the only thing they wanted more than anything that they never had was children. Another reason he didn't want to believe in fate. When Mariko offered to give them a child, every fibre in his being knew why she was doing it. He knew it was wrong, he knew that he should refuse her, but such was their desperation that he had found himself giving in to weakness and accepting her offer. Although Aiden was a blessing, a gift, it was a gift that always came with a heavy price in guilt. He always knew that Mariko wished she was the one that would be his mother, but true to her promise, she always kept the truth to herself and kept her distance, letting everyone believe the lie. Then Brody was born. It became clear that although difficult, it was not impossible for them to have the family they craved. If they had only waited, kept faith and believed then Mariko would have been spared watching the family that should have been hers live without her.

He could still hardly believe that he had another child. It was painful, bizarre to think that another child had grown up in the world without knowing him. He still had so many questions that plagued him. What had Mariko told her about him? Had Mariko told her anything about him? Would she even want to meet with him? Would she resent him for the pain he had caused her mother? He knew already he didn't deserve any forgiveness for Mariko. He would never be able to muster the sheer gall to ask it. But he had to know if she would allow him to try and make up for what he had denied her.

He let out a little laugh. He still couldn't believe the irony of it all. After running around all around the state, after everything he had done, she was right on his own doorstep. Fate, if it existed, definitely did have a sense of humour when it came to him. All he knew was that her name was now Emma and that she lived in Summer Cove. That she had a foster family in the city. She went to the same school as his son, the same school where his eldest son now worked. It was possible they had already met each other, perhaps even knew each other. He wondered what she was like. What did she look like? What were her interests?

There were so many questions, but he would have time to answer them soon enough. Now that he knew where she was, he would be able to find a way to approach her, to try and test the waters to see if she was open to learning the truth. For now, though, he still had to hope that his sons would forgive him. He had so much to make up for, he wasn't sure if it was even possible. Though he had to try.

The team was in the lab at lunch time, a room that although large, was starting to seem a whole lot smaller these days. It was originally the paint room for the shop class, meaning it was large enough to fit a car, the extractor and the compressor inside, but ever since it had been rendered "out of order" and the team commandeered it, they had put in a forge, weapons racks, computers, tools…there were now also more of them than they had initially ever expected.

Emma was still giddy, looking around, already rambling and babbling about all the improvements and upgrades she could make to their computers. No one could fault her enthusiasm for helping in any way she could. Right now, though, Sandy was working on another project. Now that the team knew who she was and knew that they needed to find another way to communicate with her in battle, she was taking some time to teach them some sign language that would be helpful. She didn't really expect anyone to become fluent or anything, but it was certainly going to be helpful to ensure that they knew enough to get their message across.

"I still don't get why we can't just point." Calvin said as he struggled to get one of the signs.

"Because that would let the bad guys know what we're doing too." Preston reminded him. Calvin just looked to him.

"Preston, in case you hadn't noticed, we scream out like fifty percent of our attacks at the top of our lungs." Calvin pointed out.

"Calvin, it's never a bad thing to learn something new." Hayley told him. "Besides, Sandy's putting in the effort to learn from us, this seems like a small thing we can do for her."

"That's perfect Hayley! Well done!" Sandy congratulated her. "Not quite Brody, you want to hold the fingers a little more like this…that's it."

"Oh, come on, that's not fair! Of COURSE, Hayley's going to get it right!" Calvin complained. The Rangers had gained a few additional gifts in addition to their Ranger Powers as a result of their contact with the Ninja Steel. It enhanced aspects of them to superhuman levels. In Hayley's case it was her desire to communicate and unite others through communication. She didn't truly learn any more languages, though she could still study and learn them the normal way if she saw fit, but her mind was altered in such a way that it started to make connections within a short time of her witnessing any other language. She only had to hear someone speak a short time and her mind would allow her to understand what they were saying and speak to them. It was entirely subconscious and she didn't even realise she was doing it. She had only discovered this when she spoke with her dog Kody and the other Rangers informed her, she was barking. It seemed that her flair for languages extended to non-verbal communication too, since she was now signing quite confidently.

"Can I help it if I have a natural advantage?" She teased him with a little wink. Mick came over, carrying a Ninja-Comm with him.

"Alright Sandy, the way I see it, you can't be a fully-fledged official Ranger until you have your very own communicator." Mick told her, presenting it to her. "Now, I have to admit it was a unique challenge figuring out how I was going to get around your…uh…well…your…um…"

"You can say deaf." She reassured him. He just smiled.

"Yes, well…I knew it would need to be modified, so I put in a couple of special features just for you." He told her, strapping it onto her wrist. "Preston, if you'd be so kind as to call Sandy?"

"OK." Preston said, looking for the communicator signal. They had a couple of different settings, one to contact everyone, and an individual signal in case anyone wanted to contact a specific Ranger. Seeing a new line, he picked that one. Sandy looked down and smiled.

"Hey, I felt that!" She commented.

"I thought putting a vibrate function on it would be a help." Mick told her. "Now, you just look at the screen and you can see the face of whoever you're speaking to so you should be able to understand them."

"Yeah, but Mick, that doesn't help when we're morphed." Hayley reminded him. He just pointed to her.

"Excellent point!" He said. "Which is why I added this little feature. Press that button there Sandy."

Sandy pressed the button he indicated, at which a holographic screen projected in front of her. Mick gestured to Preston.

"Go ahead, say something." He instructed him. The Blue Ranger just shrugged.

"Testing, testing, one, two, three." He said into his communicator. They all watched as text appeared on the holographic screen. Sandy let out a little laugh.

"That's amazing Mr Kanik!" She yelped as Preston put his arm around her. "Thank you!"

"It's just…Mick." He told her. "And you're very welcome. Can't have our latest Ranger missing a call to arms, now can we?"

"You did a great job Mick." Brody agreed, looking to Sandy. Hayley went over to the corner, where Sarah was working on something. She could see three empty Red Bull cans and Sarah was working her way through a fourth. Hayley could see Sarah was working on some kind of upgrade to the Ninja Star Blades she'd been promising for a while, but could never quite get around to finishing.

"Hey, is…everything alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, fine." Sarah yawned. "Why?"

"Because I don't claim to be an expert or anything but generally…using a Phillips head screwdriver doesn't work too well on a Jackson head screw." She pointed out. Sarah looked down, realising her mistake and let out a groan, before switching to the correct screwdriver. "Look are you sure you should…WHOA!"

They both jumped as the device sparked.

"OK, just…let's put the dangerous, powerful weapon down while we still have a full compliment of fingers, shall we?" She asked. "Now, how about you tell me what's really going on?"

"I don't know, I just…haven't slept well." She told her.

"When you're pounding that much caffeine I'm not surprised." Hayley chuckled. Sarah just looked at her witheringly.

"I'm drinking those BECAUSE I haven't slept well." Sarah said rather redundantly. Hayley put a hand on her shoulder.

"What's going on?" She asked. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

Sarah didn't know what to say. She didn't want to admit to having these dreams to herself, never mind anyone else.

What was she thinking? This was Hayley! She told Hayley everything! But…it was Victor! Surely there was no way Hayley would let her live that down, would she?

"Have you ever had…dreams?" Sarah asked her.

"No, I've never had a dream in my life." Hayley replied.

"I mean a specific kind of dream." Sarah asked her. "You know, one that involves another person?"

"I'm still not sure I follow." Hayley asked. "Wait, are you talking…like…?"

Sarah just nodded.

"Um…are we talking TV PG?" Hayley asked.

"Sometimes." Sarah said a little uncomfortably. "Sometimes veering past PG 13 into…restricted?" Hayley just sniggered.

"Is that all?" She asked. "Oh, come on, if I stopped sleeping any time, I had a little racy dream I don't think I'd have slept a day since I was 13! Wait, don't tell me you've never had…"

"Of course, I have Hayley, I'm not dead!" Sarah interrupted her. "But it's about…someone I know, someone I never thought of like that."

"Really?" Hayley asked. "Who?"

"I'm not sure…you know what? Forget I said anything!" Sarah told her.

"You don't think I'm really going to just drop the subject like that do you?" Hayley chuckled. "Is it one of the guys?"

Sarah was regretting even bringing the subject up when the alarm sounded. She breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Do NOT think we are done with this!" Hayley warned her as they went to the computer.

"There's a monster in the park a little way from here." Mick told him.

"OK, he looks pretty big and pretty angry!" Sandy stated, looking noticeably worried.

"They're all angry about something." Brody answered. "Let's go find out what this guy's problem is."


	27. Memory Thief

The Rangers arrived at the site of the battle, finding the latest monster standing, waiting for them as buildings crumbled and people fled. Flames flickered out of store fronts and homes that he had targeted and he seemed to be just waiting for them to arrive.

He was armoured, and stood just a little bit shorter than Rygore, with glowing eyes. He was holding a spiked shield which was attached by a length of chain to a sickle-like weapon. The Rangers lined up before him.

"Everyone get out of here, now!" Preston called out. "We'll take care of this guy."

"Well, you've made quite a mess here. Something tells me you wanted to get our attention." Brody said, stepping up to speak for the team. "Well, we're here, what do you want?"

"You destroyed my friends!" Wolvermean stated. Brody and the others just looked around each other for a moment.

"Um...not meaning anything, but...you're going to have to be a bit more specific." Hayley said tentatively. "We've kind of destroyed a lot of monsters."

The creature started twirling his arms in a mad-cap manner, that varied between strong, powerful ninjutsu moves and what could best be described as an insane version of a chicken dance.

"I am WOLVERMEAN!" He declared, striking a pose as an explosion went off behind him. "I am the master and leader of the GALACTIC NINJAS!"

Another explosion went off as he stood in a pose. The Rangers all just blinked.

"O...K that explains why he's pissed." Levi stated.

"You have destroyed my friends, besmirched the reputation and honour of the Galactic Ninjas!" He roared. "I may be the last, but I will avenge them all and restore the honour of the..."

"OK, OK we get it! Can we please limit the property damage to the actual fight?" Sarah asked in an exasperated tone. "God, at least we know you're the last one!"

"You've lost your friends; you don't have to join them." Brody pointed out. "We'll destroy you if we have to!"

"Oh, you are arrogant aren't you?" He asked. "That shall only serve to make my revenge all the sweeter!"

"And how many times have we heard THAT line?" Calvin asked. Just then, Wolvermean threw his shield at them, which spun towards them like a circular saw, forcing them to dive aside. Tugging on the chain, he directed it around, bouncing it around the Rangers, striking them all down in a shower of sparks, before pulling it back to him. Preston just looked to Calvin as they started to get back up.

"Cal, I appreciate the enthusiasm but...just a thought. Maybe DON'T piss off the psychotic version of Captain America?" Preston suggested.

"I think it's a bit late for that." Calvin pointed out as Wolvermean barrelled straight towards them. They all snapped up, bringing their swords to bear. "Heads up!"

In another part of the state, Gemma, Koda and Wes were all driving along a country road, surrounded by miles and miles of forest. Gemma couldn't help looking around in awe.

"Wow...this is just...wow!" She gasped. "Where I come from we're making huge strides in re-cultivating the planet, but there are still miles and miles of wasteland. I thought some of our reserves were beautiful but...I've never seen anything like this."

"Is Corinth really that bad?" Wes asked. She just shrugged.

"The city was kept pretty much intact, but it wasn't until we finally defeated Venjix we saw just how bad the damage he'd done outside the dome really was." She told him. "We're all working really hard but...it's such a huge task rebuilding a world from scratch."

"I guess people never really miss what's there until it's gone." Wes stated. "I know we can do a lot better with this version of our planet, but hearing what your world's like...I guess we should take that as a warning."

"All you can do is try." Gemma said with a smile. "When you see the world end, you come to realise how much even the smallest efforts can mean."

"Alright guys, we're here." Wes said as the trees parted into a clearing. There was a cabin there, and a man was in the yard practicing some Martial Arts. He parked up. "Let me do the talking. Tommy and I go way back."

"But he knows who we are right?" Gemma asked. "We left a data file for his Ranger Log after we defeated The Warstar."

"Trust me, if there's anything this guy doesn't know about Rangers, it isn't worth knowing." Wes assured them as they approached. "Hey, Tommy! How's it going man?"

"Wes, it's been way too long!" Tommy said as he came over, grabbing his hand and pulling him in for a one-armed hug. "The last time I saw you was at the victory party!"

"Yeah, well...some of us have jobs that don't exactly give a lot of time off." Wes told him. Tommy just flicked a towel up with his foot, mopping himself off.

"Please, not the teacher thing again!" Tommy chuckled. "If you think for one minute we get all the time off kids do, I dare you to try my job for a few months."

"No thanks." Wes stated with a smirk. "I think I'd be safer with violent felons."

"Good instincts." Tommy replied, gesturing to the house. "Can I get you guys something?"

"I'm afraid this isn't a social call." Wes sighed. "Some of the others have been going missing."

"Really? Wow...that's...that's terrible." Tommy stated. "Come on inside, we can talk in the lab."

"Wait!" Koda called out. They all turned towards him. He was standing over a bike on the lawn. Tommy just chuckled.

"I keep telling JJ not to leave that out..."

"Something not right. This been here long time." Koda pointed out. "Grass underneath grow long."

"JJ's been kind of busy lately." Tommy said, snapping his fingers. "He's got this trip coming up with..."

"The bike's starting to rust." Gemma interrupted him. Wes just turned slowly towards Tommy.

"Tommy, where are JJ and...?"

Wes was barely able to dodge in time as the Brachio Staff appeared in Tommy's hand and he swung with every intent of decapitating him. The Red Time Force Ranger rolled away as Gemma and Koda opened fire with their blasters. Tommy managed to block a couple of the blasts, but one of Gemma's hit him in the face. When he looked back, some of the 'flesh' had been ripped off, exposing a steel skull beneath.

"Either your friend's had a lot of work done or that's not Tommy!" Gemma replied. 'Tommy' laughed evilly.

"Can't say it wasn't worth a try." He commented, before morphing. He took on the form of Dino Thunder Black, but he had black, spiked shoulder pads. Wes, Gemma and Koda all went for their morphers.

"I guess that explains a lot." Wes answered. "Time for, TIME FORCE!"

Back in Summer Cove, the team were discovering just how tough Wolvermean really was. He was only a little slower than Speedwing, he was as cunning as Venoma and he was almost as powerful as Rygore. It was pretty clear how he had ended up becoming the leader of the Galactic Ninjas.

His shield was strong, and it felt like it was almost everywhere at once. Despite its weight Wolvermean swung it around effortlessly, intercepting incoming attacks and utilising it into attacks of his own. His sickle was a blur, hacking into the Rangers as they were staggered and held in place. Even the chain was a weapon in and of itself, being used to block, hook and even rip away the Ranger's weapons.

Preston ran to Sandy's side as she landed hard on a pile of rubble. She looked up to him.

"Is this how things usually go?" She asked him. Preston held his hand level and waved it to indicate more-or-less. He looked to Wolvermean, trying to think of a way to turn the tables.

"Alright." He said, before thinking of the hand signals he needed to use. He saw Wolvermean throwing his shield again, taking out Levi and Sarah with a flick of his wrist. "OK, he's not exactly like Captain America. He uses the chain to bring his shield back. If we can take out the chain, either he stops throwing the shield or he risks not getting it back."

"So how do we take it out?" She asked him.

"I'll go straight at him, you come from above." Preston signalled. He noticed she was staring straight at him. "What? Did I not sign that right?"

"No, that was pretty much perfect." She told him. "It's sweet that you..."

"GUYS, DUCK!" Brody yelled. Preston grabbed Sandy's head, shoving it down, before he got slammed into the wall by the shield. She just watched as Wolvermean snapped it back with a tug of the chain.

"Um...sorry!" She said sheepishly.

"OK, we really need to take out that shield." Preston spluttered, pulling out his Element Star. "OK, here we go!"

He ran straight towards Wolvermean, making a point to yell out loud to get his attention. Wolvermean got his shield in the way as Preston's attack sparked off it. Preston slipped inside, grabbing his wrists and forcing his hands apart, holding the chain taught.

"Alright, now!" He yelled. Sandy somersaulted through the air, powering up her blade, which sliced through the chain, separating the sickle from the shield. Wolvermean hacked wildly at both of them, knocking them both flying, before throwing the shield. Sandy only just ducked in time to stop it decapitating her as it lodged in a wall behind her. It was only then Wolvermean realised that he now couldn't retrieve it.

"Guys, the shield's down!" Preston called out.

"Nice work Pres!" Sarah called out as she went for a Steel Slash. "I guess all that remains now is to..."

"You think you're the only one with tricks?" He asked, grabbing the back of Sarah's head. He pulled his hand away, at which a glowing orb appeared in his hand. Sarah de-morphed and staggered away, looking completely confused.

"Um...where...where am I?" She asked, before turning around and seeing Wolvermean. With an ear-splitting scream she ran for cover as fast as her legs would carry her.

"What did you do to her?" Brody yelled as he dove into battle, swinging for the fences. He managed to score a couple of hits as Wolvermean staggered, but he realised too late that he was just drawing him in close. He seized the back of his head, pulling out another orb.

"What was I just doing?" Brody asked as he de-morphed. "Hey, do any of you guys know what I was doing?"

"Brody, behind you!" Calvin yelled.

"Brody?" He asked. Who's Brody?" He asked. He saw Calvin pointing behind him and turned around to see Wolvermean, He scrambled away in a panic, quickly finding somewhere to hide.

"Guys, what the hell is going on?" Hayley asked. Wolvermean grabbed her, forcing her up against a wall.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough!" He assured her. "Well, sort of."

As he pulled the orb from her head, before heading towards Sandy, Preston leapt in the way. Sandy could only watch as he pulled the orb from his head. The Blue Ranger fell to the ground and started to scoot away, right into Sandy's arms, looking terrified.

"Alright, we need to end this, NOW!" Levi called out. Calvin launched a water jet at Wolvermean, through which Levi channelled his lightning. Wolvermean was blasted away, before pulling out a bag, stuffing the orbs inside.

"Half of you is better than nothing!" He declared. "I'll be back for the rest of you later! Ninja VANISH!"

With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sandy just looked to Preston.

"Preston, are you alright?" She asked him.

"You're dressed funny." He said with a little smile. "Wait, Preston...is that my name?"

"Uh, guys...I think we have a problem here!" Sandy declared. Calvin helped up Hayley.

"Hayls...are you OK?"

"Yeah, I think so. Now that thing is gone." She replied. "So, who are you?"

"Yeah, we definitely have a problem!" Levi stated, getting onto his Ninja-Comm. "Mick, we're coming back. There's something I think you're going to need to see."

Back in Reefside, Wes, Koda and Gemma were battling with 'Tommy'. The robot launched an energy orb at Koda, which exploded in a ball of flame. The Blue Dino Thunder Ranger fell to the ground and rolled around to put it out.

"I no like this Tommy." He growled.

"Trust me, the real one is nicer." Wes assured him as he lined up shots with the Chrono Blaster. "This one might have some of his tricks, but he's not Tommy."

"Well, let's see how he does..." Gemma called out as she rushed in, seeing her opportunity while he was off-balance. "Without THIS!"

She ripped the Brachio Staff from his grasp, before kicking him away. The android just looked to the three of them and started backing away.

"It looks like things are progressing faster than intended. Taking Antonio was a mistake, he's far too visible." The android said, before tapping the side of its helmet. "Lord Draven! I need to report!"

With that, a portal opened behind him and he stepped through. The portal closed behind him before the others could follow. Gemma came to Wes' side.

"Did he just say...?"

"Draven." Wes answered with a nod as he de-morphed. "I suspected as much, but I really hoped I was wrong."

"That robot had all of Tommy's moves." She pointed out.

"MOST!" Wes corrected her. "Not all, but...most."

"I think we can safely say we know what they want with those Rangers now." Gemma replied. "Can you imagine what an army of Rangers would be able to do?"

"I'd really rather not." Wes told her.

"The only question is, what did Sledge have to do with...?"

"Sledge bounty hunter." Koda snorted in disgust. "Work for anyone who pay. Kendall always say he sell Grandmother for dollar."

"It was a lot less actually if the rumours are to be believed." Wes said, causing Gemma to do a double-take. "Thanks to Grace, we have the power we need, but if we are going to the Anti-Verse, it'll take a lot more than just the three of us."

"There have to be plenty of Rangers ready to go." Gemma stated.

"Not at the drop of a hat." Wes told her. "They're spread out now, have their own lives. By the time we mobilise them, there's no telling how many of those things he could have made. Hell, we have no idea how many he has NOW. He's had some of those Rangers for weeks!"

"I know someone." Koda told them. Wes came across.

"I think I know who you mean." He replied. "You sure they're up to it?"

"They up to anything!" Koda assured him. Wes just nodded in agreement.

"Then everyone mount up." He replied. "We have a long drive ahead of us."

Back in Summer Cove, the team had been brought back to the Command Centre. Mick was looking over the ones that had been affected by Wolvermean's power.

"Well, medically I can't see anything wrong with them. Other than the expected bumps and bruises." He stated. "As far as I can see, there's exactly no medical reason why..."

"Hey, what's this?" Sarah asked, picking up a blaster. Levi came across and took it from her before something went disastrously wrong. Mick just gestured to her.

"You know...that." He concluded.

"Their brain scans are completely normal." Emma agreed. "It's like he literally just reached into their heads and took their memories away."

"Took their memories away?" Sandy asked. "So they really don't remember anything?"

"There's an easy way to find out." Levi stated. He pointed to Brody. "Hey, you! Want to learn something cool?"

"Sure!" He said enthusiastically, coming towards him. Levi stood in front of him.

"Grab my shirt, like you're trying to pull me." He told him. As Brody did so, he grabbed Brody's wrist and twisted it, dumping him on the floor. Brody smiled and started laughing.

"Oh, wow that was cool!" He giggled. Levi just sighed.

"Even with memory loss, people still retain muscle memory, trained skills." He pointed out.

"Or, he could just have forgotten that move." Sandy suggested. Levi just looked to her.

"Believe me, I'm practically an expert on memory loss." He stated firmly. "Even when I had no idea who I was, my instincts would still kick in. I once ran across a lake without realising I'd done it until I was almost on the other side."

"You ran across a lake?" Sandy asked.

"It's...a long story." Levi said, waving it off. "But trust me, if it was just messing up what's in their head, their instincts would still be there. Wolvermean somehow took the memories right out of their head."

"Guys, why do I have all these handkerchiefs in my pocket?" Preston asked, pulling out a long string of coloured handkerchiefs. "So I have a lot of allergies or something?"

"OK, now this is bad. This is really bad." Calvin stated as he considered their options. "So this guy has already taken out half of us, and if we get too close he can take out the other half."

"Not to mention he's not exactly a slouch at long range either." Sandy pointed out. "Does everyone's first day as an official Ranger always go like this?"

"Pretty much." Calvin and Levi chorused, before Levi's phone rang. Levi answered it.

"Hello?" He asked. "Dad? What are you...you're where?"

Emma started to get up off her stool and make her way towards him.

"Well, this isn't really a great time dad!" Levi snapped. "You saw the news? Right, then you understand why...dad...You know what? We've been doing fine this long without you!"

With that, he hung up and slammed his phone down. Emma just stared up at him.

"Dude? Seriously?" She asked.

"We've been fine this long without him!" Levi reiterated. "Mick, get us some footage of that last fight, we need to do some work to get ready for the next round. Sandy, Calvin, you come with me. Redbot...try and make sure the others don't wander off."

"I'll do my best!" Redbot declared. As Levi and Calvin left, Sandy stopped by Emma for a moment, touching her shoulder, before leaving. Mick came over to her.

"There'll be time later." He told her. She just sighed and nodded and turned back to the computers.

"I'll try to get as much surveillance as I can." She assured him. "If my sister's going out there again, I want to give her all the help I can."


	28. Old Tricks, New Tricks

In the Anti-Verse, Tommy was in the middle of a savage battle, destroying robots all around in a frenzy of attacks.

He ran down a corridor, fly-kicking one into a wall where it exploded, before looking around for an unlocked door. He was frantically trying to find his way out as the alarm blared. Finding one that would actually respond when he hit the control panel, he ran out.

He found himself in a large courtyard, surrounded on all sides by Draven's castle. Robots started pouring out over the walls and out of doors and windows all around. He could see that he had ended up in exactly the last place he wanted to be. Even for one as skilled as Tommy, completely surrounded by enemies, many of whom had high ground and/or cover was about the worst position to fight from. He reached behind himself.

"MASTER MORPHER!" He called out. "MIGHTY MORPHIN'…WHITE!"

He started to glow brightly as he activated the morpher, and it only got brighter…and brighter…and brighter…until eventually there was a massive explosion. By the time the smoke cleared, dozens of robots were destroyed, along with 'Tommy'.

"OK, how many is that?" Draven sighed as he shook his head wearily.

"That was test four hundred and eighty-seven." One of his research droids said, archiving the data from the most recent test. "This one lasted a lot longer though. This time it only exploded after seventeen seconds of exposure to…"

"SEVENTEEN SECONDS!" Draven yelled grabbing the unfortunate robot and throwing it across the room, where it exploded right next to Sledge. The bounty hunter just dusted off his armour and shrugged casually as he waited for Draven to speak to him. "What use to me is a robot that explodes after seventeen seconds?"

"We keep telling you, we can harness the power of morphers, but there's just so MUCH!" Another grovelled as it showed him the data. "The Master Morpher is…astounding! It harnesses the power of FIVE morphers into one! It's simply too much for any of our current droids to handle. We've already advanced the technology by several generations researching it but we just can't get any of them to withstand it!"

"So far the only successful trial has been…"

"Me." The damaged Tommy Droid said from the corner, where it was being repaired after its battle with Wes, Koda and Gemma. They had uncovered the ruse when they went to the cabin to recruit him to help them.

"You are by far our finest work." Draven agreed, addressing his proudest creation. "And yet you can still only harness one of those powers."

"It matters not which weapons one wields. All that matters is the skill with which one wields them." The Tommy droid answered. "The one I replaced is considered the greatest of his kind, and I am superior to him in every way."

"Except, apparently, when his friends pay a social call." Sledge commented. Draven turned to him.

"I'd be careful what I say if I were you Sledge." He warned him. "I paid you very well to collect those Rangers for me. Yet your last acquisition has already brought this attention my way…"

"I did warn you where was only so long we could go after the hermits among them." Sledge told him. "Those we collected before were naturally isolated. Limited obligations in the real world. It wasn't as though they would be missed too early, even that one we needed to replace his colleagues barely noticed when he returned and his wife took extended personal leave." Sledge pointed out. "I warned you when I went for the Gold Samurai that he had a lot of friends, people that would notice he was gone. You told me to go knowing the risks."

"I am your employer…"

"And as your employee I made you aware of the risks of my actions before I made them and you made the call anyway!" Sledge growled. "Don't complain now when you ignored those warnings."

Draven turned from him, turning his attention back to his droids.

"How long until the next set of improvements is ready to test?" He asked.

"Lord Draven, we may still be unable to harness this power…"

He slammed a fist onto the table.

"DON'T tell me it's impossible!" He screamed, pointing to the Master Morpher. "You are supposed to compile the data of some of the finest scientific minds that exist! That…that was created by a…a…TEACHER! One who specialises in playing with bones and rocks!

Just then, there was an explosion and several lights flickered. Most of the monitors went down and production lines stopped. Draven went to one of the security consoles.

"What's happening?" He asked. "Is it…?"

"Another attack!" The droid on the other end confirmed. "This time from sector H14…"

"AGAIN?" He roared.

"You've got to admire the determination." Sledge chuckled, shaking his head. "Twenty-Seven attacks in different sectors in all these weeks? That is some impressive…"

"I don't care about your professional admiration for the rat that has been infesting my operation for all these weeks Sledge!" Draven snarled. "I would appreciate it if instead you did something about it!"

Sledge picked up his blaster, holstering it, before heading out the door. Draven turned back to his research droids.

"Alright, how long until we can get back to production?" He asked.

Meanwhile, in their own dimension, in the yard behind the school, Levi, Calvin and Sandy were all training hard, preparing for when Wolvermean returned. So far, it was debatable whether they had driven him off or he had just chosen to take his gains from the previous battle and take a breather, but either way it did give them a little time to regroup. They had been in the situation of having lost Rangers before, and any time their strength was reduced was always a struggle, but Wolvermean was a powerful enough enemy even when the team was at full strength.

His ability to remove the memories of others had already taken Sarah, Brody, Preston and Hayley out of the battle. They still didn't really understand the nature of how he had done it, they only knew that he had literally pulled the memories right out of their heads. They could still breathe, walk, talk…they could certainly ask questions, something Mick and Redbot were finding out to an exhausting level, but their names? Who they were? Their training? Pretty much anything about who they were, they had forgotten. It was one of the most insidious ways they had ever seen someone laid low. They were their friends, but to them, they were strangers. For now, all they could do was keep them distracted and keep them safe while they tried to figure out how to defeat Wolvermean.

Emma was looking over something while they worked on their combat. Sandy paused as Levi's blade hovered within a few inches of her throat.

"Do that against him, he won't hold back." Levi reminded her. "Cal, you're up."

"Levi, can we take a break?" Cal asked him.

"Do you think Wolvermean's taking a break?" Levi asked him. "For all we know he's watching us right now, waiting to see if we give him one inch, one opportunity and boom, that's us down too!"

"We've been at this for ages." Calvin reminded him. "Mick and Redbot have been great looking after the others, but its not fair to expect them to do all the work."

"Calvin, Wolvermean is the most dangerous…"

"And maybe that means we shouldn't face him when you've been running us ragged?" Calvin interrupted him, driving his sword into the ground. "You do what you like, but me? I'm getting a soda and going to see my friends."

Levi watched him go, throwing his hands up in frustration. He turned to look for Sandy, finding her with her sister. Emma was comforting her.

"I know, Sandy, I know but…you're doing great." Emma assured her.

"Come on, let's go again!" Levi said, gesturing Sandy over. He forgot that she wasn't looking at him, so Emma had to tap her shoulder and point towards him to let her know he was talking. "Come on, let's go."

"I'm…I'm a little tired." Sandy told him. "I'll be right back but…I feel like I need to…"

"Sandy, sometimes being a ninja doesn't allow for taking water-breaks." Levi told her. "Come on."

"Levi, I've…I've been making a lot of the same mistakes again and again." She told him. "If I have a couple of minutes to rest and get my head straight, I can work through what you're teaching me and be ready to…"

"Sandy, Wolvermean might not give us a couple of minutes!" Levi snapped, gesturing in front of him. Sandy's face darkened and she made a gesture, before storming away.

"What…what was that?" Levi asked. "That's not one of the ones you taught us…what was that?"

"That's one of the signs she doesn't do in front of mom and dad." Emma confirmed. "And for what it's worth I kind of agree with her."

"Well, sorry if I'm a little short on patience and can't worry too much about your sister's feelings." Levi stated. "But we need all the ninjas we have against this guy, and right now…we have two and a half."

"What did you say?" She yelled.

"Hey, I mean no disrespect, you and Sandy have managed to put together something…really pretty impressive without any kind of formal training but the fact is she's probably about the equivalent of a yellow, maybe green belt."

"Sandy has been working her ass off for all of this!" Emma yelled at him. "Not because she wanted it, sure as hell not because she was looking to become a ninja but because I asked her! She did all of this because I ASKED her to help me!"

"Which is very commendable but…"

"You just…you don't get it do you?" Emma yelled. "Do you think I wanted to get Sandy involved? If it wasn't for my balance and my…well…everything else, I'd have done it all myself."

"I'm not taking anything away from what you've done to help Sandy." Levi told her. "It's clear whatever your mom left you was impressive but it isn't enough for a fight with this guy."

"OK." Emma replied, picking up Calvin's sword. "Then show me your way!"

"Are…are you serious?" He asked her. Sandy rushed towards him, swinging the sword. Levi parried the blow easily and she stumbled away, but she turned on him. "Emma, that thing isn't a toy!"

Emma ran at him again, swinging for him a few times. Levi dodged them until it became clear she wasn't going to stop of her own volition. He swiped aside, sending the sword spinning from her hand, before grabbing her, switching around behind her to hold her tightly.

"Emma, what the hell are you...?" He started to say, before there was a burst of coloured smoke. He coughed and spluttered, before the smoke cleared, and he found himself holding a straw dummy. "What the…?"

He heard a click and turned around to see Emma standing, holding one of the Ninja Blasters, aiming it right at him.

"Maybe I'm not the best in a fight. But then, maybe sometimes fighting someone straight up isn't the best approach." She replied, throwing the blaster aside. She'd forgotten to apply the safety catch, so it went off, and the blast forced Levi to hit the deck. Normally she'd have been apologetic, but she was still seething. "And she was YOUR mom too jerk!"

With that, she stormed off. Levi pulled himself up off the ground, dusting himself off, before picking up the blaster and turning on the safety catch. Mick came running out, apparently drawn by the commotion.

"Is…everything alright?" He asked. "I heard shots."

"That girl is not just clumsy, she's extra strength crazy!" Levi told him. "She could have killed someone just now!"

"Yeah, throwing guns around rarely ends well." Mick agreed. "So, maybe you should train with Sandy, since she needs the help."

"She stormed out." Levi told him. "She was complaining I was pushing her too hard and I told her she needed to push harder and then she lost her temper and left."

"Huh…OK, well maybe you can train with Calvin? Who…doesn't appear to be here either?"

"He left too." Levi sighed. He had known Mick long enough to know his roundabout way of trying to make a point. His teaching method could be more accurately described as leading people to realise their own mistake and learn the lesson on their own than trying to explain it himself. It was sometimes incredibly frustrating, particularly now he saw it coming. "Mick…"

"Hmm, interesting, so three people are out here, three people all talking to you, all three friends, and yet all three stormed out." Mick said, stroking his chin. "I know that correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation but…"

"Alright, I get it! I drove them away!" Levi groaned. "But we've kind of got a serious problem here in case none of you had noticed and we have to concentrate on that."

"And are you concentrating on that?" Mick asked him.

"Yeah, I am!" Levi told him. "I'm not thinking about anything else…"

"Not even that call from your dad?" Mick asked him. Levi just glared at him. "I'm sorry, I have this thing, people sometimes forget I'm in the room and…"

"That's none of your business." Levi told him. "Besides, like I said, it's a distraction right now and we can't afford that."

"Sometimes something's a distraction if you DON'T deal with it." Mick replied.

"Look, I can deal with dad later." Levi told him. "But right now, I've got to get Sandy up to speed and I have no idea what the hell is up with Emma…"

"Really? You can't think what might be troubling Emma?" He asked him. "I get that you're pissed with your dad…"

"And Emma has to be even more pissed!" Levi interrupted him. "He lied to me all my life, Emma…he's had literally no part in her life! He didn't even know she existed until a few weeks ago! Right now, we've got a dangerous monster on the loose, half the team on the shelf and frankly, once this is over, she can tear dad a new one all day for all it matters but…"

"So, you unilaterally made the decision for Emma what she needs?" Mick asked him. Levi was struck dumb.

"I…I just…she's never even met him." Levi reminded him. "He's done nothing for her…"

"And she's spent the past sixteen years with nothing but a few diaries and some letters searching the world for him. For all three of you." Mick reminded him. "Maybe she'll yell at him, maybe she'll question him, maybe she'll want to…stick him in a wood chipper and spray the parts over a rose bush I don't know, but don't you think that maybe Emma should be able to make the decision for herself what, if anything, she decides to do with regards with her dad?"

"I guess so." Levi sighed.

"Talk Emma round. I get the feeling that Sandy usually follows pretty closely when she's involved." Mick told him. "And Calvin's usually pretty quick to calm once he gets some sugar."

"I guess this is why Brody got the Red star and I got the Gold one huh?" Levi said with a little smirk. "Come on, let's go find them."

"I'll just get rid of this first." Mick said, picking up the scarecrow. He looked to it. "This is pretty interesting, you and Brody…I can't remember the last time I saw you do this."

"It's a pretty simple and old ninja trick, but it can be effective. Emma pulled that flawlessly." Levi commented. "It's a trick we learned ages ago, so old…man, I can't believe I fell for it…I almost forgot all about it."

Just then, he paused.

"Sometimes fighting someone directly isn't the best approach." Levi said, recalling Emma's words. "Mick, call everyone to the Command Centre right away. I have a crazy idea."

"OK, are we talking jumping out of a Space Ship crazy or magnetically drawing a comet crazy?" Mick asked.

"Let's call it…Romero family crazy." Levi told him. Mick smiled.

"I like the sound of that." He replied.

Up on the Warrior Dome, Wolvermean was in the Executive Lounge, preparing to come back for the others.

He had the memory orbs of the four Rangers he had taken on pedestals around him as he meditated, collecting his energies. Wrench was busy repairing his weapons while Wolvermean was getting ready. He was close, very close to once again asserting his dominance and showing why the Galactic Ninjas were one of the most feared forces in existence. He was about to avenge his friends. Once he had done that, he could concentrate on rebuilding his force. He did wonder how desperate they were to have their memories back. After all, they had proven so strong and powerful warriors were difficult to find. It wouldn't be the first time he had recruited a former enemy.

From her throne room, Odious watched with Badonna on a surveillance screen.

"What is he even doing with those memories?" She asked.

"Perhaps he collects mementos?" Badonna suggested with a shrug.

"Is everything ready?" Odious asked her.

"The project is finally complete." Badonna told her. "In fact, I've even managed to make a minor alteration. If we need it, we can operate it on only three Ninja Amulets. It won't be fully powered until we get the fourth of course, but…it does mean we're ready to move if the opportunity presents itself."

Just then, there was a bleep and Cosmo came up on the screen.

"You asked me to contact you if any of the Rangers surfaced." He told her. "I've just received word of a sighting of two of them near a popular local hangout."

"Excellent! Go and tell Wolvermean. The moment of truth will soon be upon us." Odious told him. As she shut down the screen, she looked to Badonna. So, let's see this!"

She pressed a few buttons, at which a secret door opened, revealing Odious' new weapon. Odious smiled as she observed it.

"Excellent. No matter what happens, by the end of the day, the Rangers will be no more." She announced. "It doesn't matter who wins, with this weapon, I'll have no equal."


	29. Simple Tricks Work Best

Calvin and Levi were wandering around a business park that was under development. The latest in a long line of developments to enhance the Tien family name and influence in the city, they were building state-of-the-art office complexes that they were hoping to attract corporate clients to with favourable rates and excellent transport links to the nearby cities.

"Alright, that fake e-mail we sent out seems to have worked, none of the construction crews showed up for work today." Levi said as he looked around. "Good visibility, yeah…I think this is the spot alright."

"Yeah, it looks good." Calvin said as he shrugged his shoulders, kicking a loose pebble along the pavement. Levi just looked to him.

"It's alright Cal, once Wolvermean comes back, we'll get Hayley's memories back, the others' too."

"I know, it's just…" He tailed off as he looked around, before gesturing to some stone benches in the middle of the courtyard. They walked over and sat down. "I don't know, I just don't like how things went with Sandy."

"Cal, you know…"

"Look, I know Wolvermean is tough and everything but the way we handled things it just…doesn't feel right." Calvin told him. "I mean, sure she's green, you know, in every sense of the word, but to bench her like that?"

"It was the best thing we could do!" Levi interrupted him. "Look, I like Sandy just as much as anyone. She's a nice girl, she's got some real talents, and you know, maybe in a few months with the right training she could be a pretty decent ninja. But the fact is, against someone like Wolvermean? She's just a liability."

"Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" Calvin asked him.

"You know as well as I do, Wolvermean is one of the toughest we've ever faced. The last thing we need is to be distracted looking out for her while we're fighting him." Levi answered.

"I guess so." Calvin said, sounding dejected. "But she seemed really upset."

"I think she'd be even more upset if she was missing some of her limbs, don't you?" Levi asked. "Alright, so looking at this place, the sun's coming in from over there, so that's probably where he's going to try and come in from. Keep the sun at his back so it doesn't affect him but could dazzle us."

"He's been gone a while so I think it's fair to say he's probably rebuilt that shield thing of his, possibly even upgraded it if Wrench had his way." Calvin reminded him. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, we need to get close to get those memory orbs. He kept them in the bag on his belt." Levi reminded him. "But getting close is a problem so…"

"I've got it, how about I distract him with the blaster…?"

"Or, my Rockstorm Blaster has more firepower, how about I distract him with that?" Levi suggested. "Then you close in and take the bag from his belt. Once we've got the memory orbs back."

"Right." Calvin stated. "All we need now is the element of surprise!"

"TOO LATE!" They heard Wolvermean call out. He appeared behind them, dropping the illusion that kept him cloaked from sight. He reached forward, seizing the backs of their heads, but as he did so, there was another flash of light. He felt Levi and Calvin fall away from him, and stared down seeing his hands full of hay. On the ground were two straw dummies dressed like the Gold and Yellow Ranger. "GAH! The Scarecrow technique? You think you'll trick me with such childish…?"

"Think we already did!" Levi called out from a walkway above him. He and Calvin were already morphed, Levi with his Rockstorm Blaster levelled his way and Calvin with his morpher in bow mode. Wolvermean lifted his shield overhead just in time as they rained down shots on him.

"It'll take more than that to…" He stared to say, before he felt something tug at his waist. He looked around in time to see the Green Ranger de-cloaking and slicing the draw strings to the bag on his waist band. He watched as she snatched away the bag. "HEY! That's mine!"

She flipped backwards away from him, before starting to run. He was sure he'd heard Levi and Calvin say that she wasn't there, that they'd left her behind…he let out an angered scream and threw his shield up at the walkway towards them. Calvin and Levi both leapt aside as it smashed through, raining down concrete and glass before snatching it back. He quickly found Sandy again and started to run after her.

"You think an amateur like you can match ninja tricks with a master like me?" He yelled. "I'm going to make you suffer like you've…AAAARGGGGHHHH!"

He stumbled and fell, rolling into a solid wall, before looking down and seeing the problem.

"CALTROPS?" He screamed, pulling one out of his foot. Caltrops were little spiked balls that could be dropped on the ground to help evade pursuers. They would injure the feet of anyone unlucky enough to step on them forcing them to abandon the chase or slow down. It was yet another very basic trick that Wolvermean couldn't believe he'd fallen for. Calvin and Levi got between him and Sandy's escape route, cutting him off and letting her run.

She disappeared around the corner to where Mick and Emma were waiting with the others. She de-morphed and handed Mick the bag.

"Alright, I've got them." She told him. "Um…so what do we do now?"

"I'm uh…not entirely sure." Mick answered, pulling out one of the memory orbs. "I mean, it's not like there's an instruction manual for this situation."

"Maybe we could give this a try?" Emma suggested, taking the memory orb and shoving it into Sarah's head. Sandy and Mick both just stared at her.

"Emma?" Sandy demanded.

"What? That's how he got them out right?" She asked. "OK, uh…Sarah, how did you get to school this morning? Did you ride the bus?"

"No, Calvin drove me in Nitro." She answered. "And why are you calling me Sarah?"

"Uh…OK, we have a new problem now." Mick responded.

"Well, it's not like they're colour coded or have name tags or anything is it?" She asked as they glared at her. "Look, this looks like a spell, most spells correct themselves after a monster is destroyed right?"

"Usually." Mick replied. Emma grabbed the other memory orbs and started shoving them into the Rangers' heads.

"Emma, really?" Sandy yelled. The Rangers just stood around, staring and pointing at each other. Emma just whistled.

"Look, there's not much time so cliff-notes version…sorry if you have the wrong set of memories, but we hope that gets fixed after the battle. Right now, Wolvermean is just around that corner so…"

"It's fine, you were epic!" Hayley declared, patting Emma on the shoulder, before pushing her way to the front. "Uh…OK…let's give this a shot! Ninja SPIN!"

"This is…sadly not the weirdest thing those guys have had to deal with." Mick said as Sandy morphed and left to re-join the battle with her friends. "OK, for now, the two of us should probably…"

"Yeah, good idea." Emma responded as they both ran back towards the school.

Back at the main battle site, Levi and Calvin were holding out as much as they could when the rest of the Rangers arrived. They all quickly took up positions, surrounding him.

"So, you all got your memories back?" Wolvermean asked. "Its no matter, I'm just getting warmed up! Ninja clone technique!"

They all watched as other images of Wolvermean appeared, creating seven in all, matching the Rangers. They all looked around in panic.

"Uh…OK, this isn't good." Calvin stated. "One was bad enough."

"It's an advanced ninjutsu technique, one we haven't covered yet!" Hayley called out. They all just stared at her.

"Hayley?" Calvin asked. "How did you know…?"

"It's…a long story." Hayley answered. "All you need to know is only one of them is real. If you land a hit on one of the illusions it'll disappear until we find the only real one."

"Great, so none of these can hurt us?" Preston, at least the one that looked like Preston, asked.

"I didn't say that now did I?" Hayley responded. "Treat each of these as being as dangerous as the real one, and remember your training! Use any tricks you can, cut down the odds!"

"Screw this, I'm outta here!" Sandy yelled as she turned tail and started to run. Wolvermean started to run after her in close pursuit, so closely that he didn't notice as she clipped a Power Star into her sword, before stopping dead in her tracks and thrusting it straight behind her. Wolvermean, with a full head of steam and unable to stop, ran straight onto the blade, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Sandy twirled her blade proudly. It was a tactic known as the 'Chicken run'. A ridiculously old and basic trick that relied on the enemy assuming their opponent was defeated and retreating and seeking to destroy them as they ran away. The most vulnerable position anyone could be in was charging, because it left them open to an attack, and the run was designed to encourage that. By the time the enemy saw their 'victim' had stopped still and was shoving a blade straight towards them it was far too late to do anything about it. "Chicken run! The old ones are always the best!"

"You want to see an old one?" Levi asked, before running out onto a pond. The Wolvermean he was fighting followed him, apparently able to tread water as easily as Levi could. However, as soon as he was on the surface, Levi leapt up, loading his lightning star into his Rockstorm Blaster and aimed at the pond, electrocuting it. The Wolvermean clone exploded as Levi landed on the edge of the pond. "Got to watch that footing!"

With a quick flurry of attacks and a smattering of a few tricks, the clones fell one by one, until only Calvin was left fighting.

"I guess that means I've got the real one!" Calvin stated, kicking him away.

"Alright, let's take him out!" Hayley called out, pulling out the Lion Fire Armour Star. Wolvermean focused on her, awaiting the attack. However, she instead flicked it behind her back, instead using her Ninja Blaster to force him to lift her shield as she tossed it to Preston. Wolvermean tracked the Lion Fire Star as best he could from behind the shield, but between sword attacks and blaster shots, he kept losing sight of it, only catching glimpses up until the moment that he took a hard hit from Levi, who yanked the shield away from him and pulled until only the chain kept it from being taken away. He entered into a tug of war with Wolvermean over the shield.

"You can't activate your weapon while you're concentrating on my shield!" Wolvermean roared. Levi shook his head.

"Who says I've got it?" He asked. Wolvermean turned around just in time to see Sandy leaping through the air, the Lion Fire Armour forming around her, and her blade burning with an intense flame. He tried to protect himself, but with Levi pulling at the chain, he couldn't get a guard in the way in time. With one fell stroke, Sandy brought the blade down. Wolvermean fell to the ground and exploded, heralding his end.

"The thing about knowing all those tricks is, sometimes you forget all the easy ones." She said as she looked to the others. There was a bright glow and orbs shot between Sarah, Hayley, Preston and Brody. They all stood for a moment, patting themselves down.

"So…is everyone back in their own body?" Calvin asked.

"What do you think?" Hayley asked as she came over and hugged him tightly.

"I hope so or…this is going to be a really awkward moment for me in the future." He replied, at which Hayley hit him. "OK, it's definitely you."

Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo leapt onto the stage. Given the crowd reaction it was a foregone conclusion how the audience vote was going to go, but he still made the most of the performance.

"Oh well, don't count Wolvermean out yet!" Cosmo stated. "This fight is far from over! Gigantify!"

As he hit the controls, Madame Odious looked to Badonna and left wordlessly, heading back towards her throne room. Her plan was close to finally coming to fruition.

Down on the ground, as the Rangers were about to leave, an energy beam hit the ground where Wolvermean had fallen. Sandy was about to reach for the Lion Fire Armour Star, when Brody put a hand on hers. He knew she couldn't hear him with the helmet on, so he just shook his head and gestured upwards. He pulled out his own Zord star as the others did. Sandy had never been a part of a Zord battle, she'd never had a Zord. However, Brody was trusting her with the most powerful zord in their arsenal. She took a deep breath and followed the lead of the others. They didn't wait and take any chances, going immediately for the Ninja Steel Ultrazord.

Wolvermean sent a massive blast out from his shield, straight towards them, shaking the Zord, but failing to cause any significant damage as it advanced on him.

"You think that thing scares me?" He screamed as he rushed forward, lashing out with his axe. The Ultrazord had many powerful weapons and gifts, but speed and manoeuvrability were not among them! What it more than made up for in sheer power it sacrificed in terms of movement. It was a tank, able to roll over any defence but certainly wasn't going to be winning any prizes for dodging any time soon. "I've taken out armies, enemies far bigger and stronger than me! Entire civilisations that…"

"Yeah, and you know the one advantage with this thing?" Brody asked as he grabbed him, before planting one of the blasters in his chest. "We only need to hit…ONCE!"

He opened fire, blasting Wolvermean through some buildings. His armour shattered and left him smoking and struggling to stand as he slowly scrambled back to his feet. Wolvermean brought up his shield and his axe.

"Oh, come ON! Will you give it up?" Sarah asked. "How much more do we have to kick your ass?"

"I will NEVER give up!" He yelled. "I will always seek to redeem the honour of the Galactic NinjAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The Rangers watched as an energy blade protruded from his chest. They hadn't even seen the new arrival.

"What in the hell is that?" Calvin asked.

"Considering it looks like a fox…I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's got something to do with Odious." Sarah suggested.

"So…she's destroying her own monsters now?" Brody asked.

"It's not like she hasn't got a history of it." Levi reminded them.

"Yeah, but usually she waits until AFTER they've laid us low!" Preston answered. Wolvermean turned towards the new arrival, a huge, fox-like Zord of immense power, holding the energy blade that had been rammed through him.

"You…"

"You had your chance Wolvermean! Now it's MY turn!" Odious declared, reaching down and collecting his medallion from the pieces of his armour. "I just needed the last of these…and thanks to you, now I have it!"

"Curse you, Odious, you treacherous wicked witch!" He roared. "You may have betrayed us, but the universe will always remember the…"

He struck a pose, throwing up an explosion behind him that the Rangers needed to shield themselves from.

"GALACTIC NINJAS!" He declared, before falling face first to the ground and exploding. The Rangers all stared in disbelief.

"He…actually posed as he died?" Calvin asked. "Now that's what I call commitment to a bit!"

"I'd almost be feeling sorry for him right now." Hayley commented. "You know, if he hadn't tried to destroy us and everything."

Madame Odious' Zord placed Wolvermean's Ninja Medallion against its chest plate, absorbing it into itself. Odious cackled evilly.

"Now that I have all four Ninja Medallions, my Foxatron has all the power it needs!" She declared. "Surrender now or face your doom!"

"OK, you know us, right? We have met?" Brody asked her. "How do you think we're going to answer."

"Just don't say I never gave you the offer." She answered as the Foxbot broke into a run, coming towards the Rangers.

"OK guys, stay focused, we just have to lock on and…"

"Brody, she's right on top of us!" Levi yelled as the Foxatron darted between a few blasts, before launching straight through them, swiping its energy sword. The damage control computers started flashing and alarms were going off everywhere. They could only watch as the Ultrazords' right arm fell from its shoulder and crashed to the ground.

"Holy SHIT!" Calvin screamed.

"She's coming around again!" Hayley warned them as they tried in vain to avoid the attack. By now the control room was filling up with smoke as well as more and more systems going off-line.

"Brody, this is really bad, the primary and back-up systems have just about had it!" Sarah told him. "If we take one more shot like that…"

"Everyone disengage Zords!" Brody called out. Preston quickly made the motion to Sandy so that she knew what he was saying.

"Dude, are you sure…?"

"We're sitting ducks here in this thing!" Brody pointed out. "Maybe with smaller Zords we can outrun her, surround her and stop her just cutting off pieces as she sees fit!"

"What about the Lion Fire Zord?" Calvin asked.

"We're going to have to sacrifice it for now." Brody sighed sadly. "Sorry Viera, we'll repair it if we survive, I promise."

With that, the Megazord dived out of the control panel in the centre of the Ultrazord, narrowly skirting underneath Odious' final thrust as her energy blade went straight through the Lion Fire Zord. Levi formed up the Bull Rider Megazord to join them. They could only watch as with one last blow, the Lion Fire Megazord exploded in a devastating fireball, falling to the ground completely obliterated.

"I…I can't believe it…she actually did it!" Preston gasped.

"Preston, snap out of it, we need to focus right now or we'll end up the same way!" Brody reminded him.

"I think it's far too late for that!" Odious cackled. "Those idiots the Galactic Ninjas delivered me all the power I needed! And you were helpful enough to destroy them for me! It didn't matter if they won or lost, either way I was always going to be the last one standing! Fox Drones! Swarm!"

The Rangers could only watch as a number of drones flew out of the Foxatron, bombarding them with energy blasts. They tried to return fire, taking down some of them, but there were far too many. By the time they had exhausted their power and fell to the ground, the Megazords were barely standing.

"We can't take any more of this, we have to finish this NOW!" Brody declared. "Ninja Megazord, final ATTACK!"

"Bull Rider Megazord, Rapid Fire Rodeo Blast!" Levi added as they both channelled their energy into their ultimate attacks. Their hearts sand as after the attacks hit home, the Foxatron stood, completely unharmed.

"Again!" Brody declared.

"Brody, we can't…"

"AGAIN!" He called out.

"WITH WHAT?" Sarah yelled at him. "I hate to break this to you Brody, but that was literally the last of the power! There's nothing left TO throw at it!"

"Guys, please tell me you have something left in the tank, because my Megazord is running on fumes." Levi said over the intercom.

"I…I don't believe it, this is…really it." Brody said weakly.

"Fox blade SLASH!" Odious called out, casting out energy waves from her blade. With no power left to do anything, the Zords took the full brunt of the hit. The Rangers had no choice but to bail out as the zords crashed to the ground, completely spent.

Odious turned on a link to the Warrior Dome, appearing on the screen in the studio. Even Cosmo was completely shaken by this display, but the audience was simply eating it up. A surprise warrior, a twist ending, the fall of a powerful ninja…the show had all the makings of a classic Pay-Per-View and it was going on in the standard programming.

"So long, Rangers! She declared. "Show's over, Ninjas Lose!"

The Rangers hit the ground, de-morphing as they did. They could only stare up at the Foxatron, waiting for the inevitable. However, just as they were waiting for the Foxatron to attack, they saw it stop in its tracks and double over. Odious leapt down from the Foxatron, landing before them.

"It seems that the Galactic Ninjas have neglected to recharge their amulets lately. No matter, I'll finish you myself." She declared. "Then when I recharge the Ninja Amulets, the rest of the world will fall…GAHHH!"

She staggered backwards as she was hit by blasts. They turned in time to see a jeep speeding into the area. Koda and a woman they had never seen before were firing blasters at Odious while another guy they hadn't seen in military style fatigues with a red beret was driving.

"Koda?" Sarah asked.

"There's no time, come with us!" Wes called to them.

"You know what they say about gift horses!" Levi said with a shrug as they all ran over, squeezing in as tightly as they could. Given the fact that Odious had survived a full-on impact from an asteroid they were under no false impressions that Koda and Gemma's blasters were anything more than a distraction to her. Wes gunned the engine, speeding them away as Odious finally started to clear her vision.

"Run! Run all you want!" She declared loudly. "It won't matter! There'll be nowhere to hide when you no longer have a planet to hide on!"

As the jeep sped away, Wes turned to look at the Rangers squeezed into the back in any way they could. The vehicle was only designed to hold about six people, but in their desperation, they had stuffed ten into it.

"Sorry about the hasty introduction." Wes stated. "We were on our way to your base when we heard about the battle. We figured you needed a hand."

"Appreciated." Brody stated. "Not that we're not grateful or anything, but…we know him, but who are the two of you?"

"Let's save the introductions for when we're back at the base." Wes told them. "Trust me, this is going to be a long one."


	30. Helping Hands

Odious returned to the Warrior Dome to a thunderous applause. She was rarely the type to care much about Galaxy Warriors, or the audience. For years it had just been a way for her to attract powerful warriors, useful idiots that were so intent on flexing their muscles and proving their strength that they didn't realise all they were was weapons, helpful tools in her quest to be the dominant power in the universe, but after her crushing victory over the Rangers, while she waited for the medallions to be recharged, she was happy enough to stroke her own ego a little.

Wrench watched from the production booth along with Badonna as Odious insisted on an interview with Cosmo.

"The Rangers' Zords now lie in ruins!" Cosmo reminded everyone. "Reduced to scrap by your Foxatron!"

"Yes, and that is exactly the way they will stay." She said, waving him off. "I have no use for what's left of them. I fully intend to let them sit in the streets, rusting to nothing! Perhaps when I return and crush the Rangers once and for all I'll gather them up as a monument to their failure."

"Well, with so much power at your disposal, one would think you have to be in good standing to claim the title of Galaxy Warriors Champion…"

"That title will make a fun little trophy." She told him. "But my ambitions extend far beyond that! With this new power I will have no equal! No one will be able to rival my power! When the dust settles, I will stand tall as the most powerful being in this or any other universe and all will bow down to me!"

In the production booth, Wrench just backed up a little hearing this.

"Oh my." He stammered. "Did…she just declare war on Draven?"

"I believe that's exactly what she did." Badonna said as she arrived over his shoulder. "And if I were a betting woman, I know which side I'd put my money on."

Down in the Ranger Base, they had returned to the base after the disastrous battle with Foxatron. They had started the day with a powerful enemy and four of their number without their memories, but somehow, somehow, they had managed to end up in what seemed an even worse situation. Beaten, demoralised, dejected, and with their most powerful weapons in ruins on the streets, they were now just waiting for Odious to return to finish them off.

"You all OK?" Koda asked. Levi just shrugged.

"As alright as we can be given the circumstances." He answered honestly. "I'm not normally one for clichés but…at least we have our health, right?"

"Yeah, because THIS feels healthy." Sarah grumbled. "I appreciate the rescue, but…what are you guys doing here?"

"Well, as bad a time as this is to say this but, we were actually coming to ask for your help." Gemma told them. "But I think it's safe to say this takes precedence right now."

"OK, now we've got a little bit of time, I think we should get the introductions out of the way." Wes told them. "My name is Wesley Collins. I'm the joint chief of the Silver Guardians. I'm also Time Force Red Ranger."

He showed them his morpher, something that was taken as kind of a universal sign among Rangers that they were able to talk freely. He pointed to Koda.

"Koda, you already know." He said, gesturing to the Blue Dino Charge Ranger. "He was actually the one that recommended we come to you for help. This here is Gemma, RPM Silver Ranger."

"RPM?" Calvin asked. Gemma stepped forwards.

"I come from a different dimension, one where things developed very differently from your own." She told them.

"How differently?" Brody asked.

"Well, for starters, none of your teams existed." She said rather matter-of-factly.

Wes cleared his throat to get her attention and made a winding motion with his finger to indicate that now wasn't really the time for origin stories. She just nodded.

"Well, five-minute version, computer virus infects all the world's computers, creates a robot army, wipes out over ninety eight percent of the planet's population, Dr K, our mentor, makes a Ranger team to fight it, we in, world's now slowly rebuilding." She stated. The others just stared and blinked at her as she finished her story.

"You know, now our origin story doesn't seem so bleak." Brody commented.

"Anyway, we have a mission that we really need your help with but…we can see you have your own problems here." Wes told him. "So, we'll help where we can."

"You're Time Force, so…you can time travel right?" Calvin asked. Wes just shook his head.

"I know what you're thinking, but…sorry, all that kind of thing just causes all kinds of problems with space time and…"

"I was just thinking…couldn't you take what's left of our Zords to the future to repair them?" He asked. "I mean, you could spend like a century putting them back together and still send them back like five minutes from now."

"That…actually isn't that bad a suggestion." Sarah replied thoughtfully. Wes just sighed.

"Trust me, messing around with time gets pretty messy pretty quickly." Wes assured them.

"How messy?" Brody asked him.

"Well, put it this way, if you have another option, I'd say we should exhaust that first." Wes told them. Just then, the Ninja Nexus Prism started to glow. The team all gathered around it as it started to show images.

"OK, what's with that?" Gemma asked.

"That? Oh, that's the Ninja Nexus Prism." Mick explained. "It's what gives us all the powers and weapons and stuff. It sometimes shows us new things in dire times like…well…like now, apparently."

"So, it just…randomly comes up with new stuff for no reason?" Gemma asked.

"You get used to it." The ninjas all chorused.

"Those are new Zords." Hayley said, inspecting the images. "They look powerful too."

"Is it just me or are there only six of them?" Sandy asked.

"Well, let's just try and make some new Zord Stars, then shall we?" Mick suggested, looking out some spare Super Ninja Steel stars. He threw them all into the Nexus Prism, at which the prism started to glow and spin wildly. "Alright, get ready everyone, remember, they come out fast!"

"I don't see a green one." Sandy said, pointing to the Nexus Prism. "Am I the only one noticing there only seem to be six of them?"

They all waited, eager to get their new Zord Stars, but as the Nexus Prism stopped spinning, the six newly formed Zord Stars were still inside the Nexus Prism. Wes just pulled off his beret and started scratching his head.

"Um…not to be judgmental or anything but, isn't something meant to happen?" He asked.

"Well, yeah." Mick said as they approached the Nexus Prism. Sarah reached out for the Prism, but her hand just hit the surface. She pressed against it, but it wouldn't let her reach inside.

"I don't get it!" She whispered as she backed away from the Nexus Prism. "It made the stars, I can see them, they're right there but, we can't get to them."

"Why won't it give us the stars?" Calvin asked. "Clearly we need them!"

"Look, I don't claim to understand how…any of this works." Wes stated. "But maybe we can revisit Calvin's idea about repairing your old Zords in the future."

"I just don't get it. Why show us these Zords if the Nexus Prism isn't going to give them to us?" Preston asked. "You think there's something else we have to do to get them?"

"Yeah, but what?" Brody asked.

"I don't know, but until we figure it out…it looks like we're stuck." Levi answered. "You should all go home."

"What?" Sarah asked.

"School's out now. Your folks'll only worry if you don't head home." He reminded them. "Mick and I still have stuff to do around here. Wes, you and the others have somewhere you can go?"

"With the surname Collins, getting a hotel room isn't a problem." He assured him.

"I think I'm going to stay and help here." Gemma announced. "I'm not Dr K, but I'm pretty good with tech. Maybe I can help out here."

"Anything you can do to help would be great." Mick responded. Sarah just looked to Koda.

"Well, you want to come to mine?" She asked. "I mean, it's been ages since we caught up. I'm sure mom and dad wouldn't mind a dinner guest."

"OK, see you all tomorrow." Mick replied as they all slipped out of the base. "I hope."

Up on the Warrior Dome, Madame Odious had foregone any illusion of just being content with her victory and had announced a full-blown victory party. The entire ship, right from the main cities and the upper levels inhabited by the richest and most powerful on the ship, right down to those in the waste-filled slums at the lowest levels of the slave quarters were 'invited' to pay homage to Odious and engage in the celebrations whether they wanted to or not.

Drink flowed and food was dolled out all across the ship. Brawls broke out where the celebrations turned to discussions of who could possibly hope to confront Odious now, and music blared at all levels. Odious, for her part, was keeping her own celebration in her throne room. Cosmo was just sitting in the corner, nursing a cocktail.

"You look about as happy to be here as I am." Wrench commented as he sat down. "I'd have thought you'd be delighted with the ratings. Another merchandise line once that Foxatron footage…"

"It's all short-term gains." Cosmo sighed. "Don't you get it? Odious' new weapon is unstoppable!"

"Well, we all thought that about Galvanax and…"

"You just don't get it do you?" Cosmo asked. "Sure, everyone loves a juggernaut, they love a devastator for a short time, but how long do you think people want to watch short, repetitive fights? Presuming she even gets into the arena again…"

"She's the champion, she has to!" Wrench stated.

"Do you really think there's any way I can stop her if she decides she can't be bothered fighting again?" Cosmo asked Wrench. "Odious has never cared about the games. She has no reason to want to take part unless I can give her a reason to, and then what? Can you really see anyone being able to match Foxatron?"

"You're…you're saying…?"

"A champion has to be powerful, but NOT unbeatable! If no one believes they can be beaten then people will stop watching!" He told him, tossing back his drink. "She's just completely screwed the odds. She's killed Galaxy Warriors."

"So, what are we going to do about it?" Wrench asked him.

"What can I do? Odious isn't going to let me anywhere near that Foxatron." Cosmo replied. "I hate to admit it, but this time I think she might have just outplayed me."

"I think she might just have outplayed herself too." Wrench told him. Cosmo looked to him curiously.

Over at the school, Levi was heading back to his class to gather his notes when he noticed Mrs Finch in her classroom, standing by one of the sinks. She was staring town the drain, and by the sounds of things she was upset about something. Levi knew that the team had a lot going on. They still had no idea how long it would be until Odious returned with Foxatron, but something drew him in. He approached her.

"You know, it's going to be alright." He assured her. "What happened in the battle today is bad but…we've been down before…"

"What? What battle?" She asked him. He could see she was extremely upset. He could see tears in her eyes and she had an assortment of tools all around the drain, from a coat hanger she had straightened out into a long hook to a plunger.

"You…you didn't see the news?" He asked her. She just shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to replace the toner in my printer and I got some on my hands, then when I was washing up…" She started to explain. "I lost my wedding ring!"

"What?" He asked her.

"I've been meaning to get it re-fitted, but I just never got around to it!" She told him.

"Oh…well, I guess…at least that's a reminder of your ex gone." He replied.

"Do you really think he'd have given me something like that?" She asked him. "It was my grandmothers! She gave it to me before she died. She wanted me to have something of hers and…It just slipped off!"

Levi could sympathise with her, he really could, but he had his own problems right now. The Earth was on borrowed time. Foxatron could be recharged and ready to come back any time, and at present the team still had nothing to throw back at it. He pulled out his cell phone, beginning to look for the details of a plumber when he caught another look at her. He just sighed and put his phone away.

"The ring's made of gold, right?" He asked. She just nodded. "Then it's heavy, so it's probably caught in the trap. It's unlikely it's been washed down any further."

He pulled off his t-shirt and got underneath the sink, taking a look.

"You don't have a wrench, do you?" He asked her. "And…a basin would be good too."

"The janitor should have something in his cupboard." She replied. "Thank you, Levi."

"No problem." He answered. "This should only take a few minutes."

Sarah got back to her place with Koda in tow, and just as she'd predicted, her parents had no problem whatsoever with their unexpected guest turning up. Koda had been a family friend since the days when Sarah worked in the Amber Beach Museum and to know that he was in town, they were more than happy to see him.

"Here you go, extra rare just the way you like it." Ellie said, putting a huge burger down in front of Koda. He picked it up, beginning to chew on it furiously. "I can see your appetite hasn't diminished at all."

"Well, what do you expect? Professional athlete and all that?" Al asked with a little smiled. "I heard you're heading out on tour soon…"

"No, afraid not." Koda told him. "Have to miss, have important personal business."

"Oh, well…that's too bad." He responded.

"Have to drop title, Carl no able to have tour with no champion." Koda told them. "Was really looking forward to tour, but…something come up."

"Well, I'm sure you'll get it back soon enough." Ellie answered. "So, you're just working at the museum until they come back then?"

"That and few small bookings." Koda said with a nod. "Money not good but…I get by."

"Well, at least Alessandra's still working right?" Sarah asked. Koda got a little smile on his face.

"Not for little while." He told them. "About…seven more month at least."

"She's not working for…?" Sarah started to say, before the penny dropped. She let out a delighted little squeal and leapt over to him, wrapping her arms around him.

"Koda, that's great news! Congratulations!" She gushed as she tried to compose herself.

"That's wonderful news! We're really delighted for you!" Ellie told him. "I still remember how bowled over we were when we heard this little bundle of trouble was on the way."

"It very good news. Really look forward to having baby." Koda told them. "But…really worried too. Everything so expensive, it no like when I young…"

"I have to admit the economy has been a little all over the place the last 20 years or so." Al commented. Both Koda and Sarah remained silent on the matter. Her parents were still ignorant to Koda's true origins. They had no idea that Koda came from a time before money even existed, never mind a time where money was worth a lot more than it is now. He'd only really started to learn how money really worked a few years ago.

"Yes, things very expensive now. Doctors, school…I…I worry how I pay." Koda told them. "I sorry, I no mean to bring up problems…"

"No, no it's totally fine Koda, you're a friend, if we can help, we should." Sarah assured him. "Um, dad, do you think you could have a look at Koda's money?"

"Well, I have to admit it's a new one on me." He said with a shrug of the shoulders. "I can't say I've ever had to deal with someone whose income is as variable as a professional wrestler but I…suppose it's technically not much different to someone who's self-employed."

"You think you help?" Koda asked him. Al just smiled.

"Koda, I would consider it a pleasure." He assured him.

Back at the school, Levi was busy underneath the sink, working to remove the trap. Mrs Finch was pacing as he finally managed to get it loose. It spilled a little filthy water everywhere, but he managed to get it off and empty the contents into a basin.

"Is it there? Did you get it?" She asked him. He started clearing out the last of the gunk from inside the part into the basin.

"Let's just see, shall we?" He asked, beginning to swirl his fingers around in filth so vile he didn't like to even guess what it could have been at some point. "God, just to think I used to like the idea of being a prospector, but I doubt any of those folks panning for gold ever had to deal with…"

He stopped as he felt his fingers hit something. He fished it out, taking a look. He got a bottle of water and rinsed it off to get a better look. He held it up, looking to Mrs Finch as her eyes lit up.

"Well, I'd suggest getting it cleaned when you get it re-sized but…I think this is what you're looking for." He declared.

"Oh, you did it! Thank you!" She gushed. "You have no idea how much this means to me!"

"Well, I'm just glad I could help." Levi stated with a little smile. "I mean, sure there's a lot of other stuff going on, but…I'm just glad I could…"

He tailed off as his eyes caught Mrs Finch's.

"…help." He concluded as they started to come together, kissing passionately. Levi backed away from her a little. "Um…I'm sorry I think I messed up your…"

"It's alright." She assured him. "I think I'll survive an early laundry day."

Just then, Levi's Ninja-Comm bleeped. He looked to her, at which she just nodded and backed off. While she knew that Levi was a Ranger, he hadn't told her who the others were.

"Um…yeah, what is it?" He asked.

"Guys, what exactly are you all doing right now?" Mick asked.

"Uh…well…I don't really know how to explain it but…" Levi started to stammer.

"Well, whatever you're doing right now, come to the lab immediately!" Mick told them.

"Why? What's going on?" Sarah asked from another line.

"Well…whatever you've been doing seems to have changed something." Mick told them. "The Nexus Prism is glowing again!"

"It is?" Levi asked. "We'll be over right away!"

With that, he signed off. He was about to leave when Mrs Finch coughed to get his attention, holding up his t-shirt. Levi just slapped his forehead before getting his shirt, pulling it on and looking to her.

"Um…rain check?" He asked.

"That better be all it is." She told him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before he ran off.


	31. Foxatron Outfoxed

The team rushed back into the Lab, stumbling and shoving a little to get in through the secret door as they went. As much as they appreciated the need for privacy, knowing that coming in and out of the door to a room that was marked as "out of order", not to mention some of the secret entrances actually being kind of fun to use, they weren't all that large and it did sometimes make coming through more than one or two at a time a little difficult and could lead to a few embarrassing instances when they were in a hurry. Emma was the victim this time, spread-eagling on the floor as her glasses slid to the other side of the room while she covered up, and the others had to carefully hop and step around her so they didn't trample her.

"I'm OK!" Emma said from the floor, starting to pull herself up and dust herself off as the others assembled in the middle of the room. "Has anyone seen my glasses?"

"Mick, we all got here as fast as we could!" Brody rushed out. Everyone was much too busy, their minds on the impending return of Odious and her Foxatron to notice Emma squinting in the background. While her eyesight wasn't THAT bad, mostly only needing her glasses for reading or working on her computer, things did still get a little fuzzy when they were a little more than arm's length from her. "What's going on?"

"Well...see for yourself." He said, gesturing to the Nexus Prism. It had once again started glowing and spinning, and the images of the new Zords had returned, but so far the Zord Stars were all still inside. "It looks like you've done something to trigger it, but...whatever it is it looks like it was only the start."

"So, this thing is empathic?" She asked. "It reacts to you guys and whatever you're doing and decides when you're ready for things?"

"Well, yeah, that's a pretty good way of putting it actually." Mick conceded.

"So, whatever you guys were doing has started the process." Wes reiterated. "So, what were you doing?"

"I don't know, we were...well..." Calvin started to say. "I guess, I was sulking kind of."

"I don't think that's exactly what it was." Mick said, stepping out the way as Emma bumped into him, stumbling around looking for her glasses. Calvin just sighed.

"Well, what else were we meant to do? We got our butts handed to us! Odious tore through our Zords like they were made of damp crepe paper!" He reminded them. "So anyway, I got home and my mom was having trouble with one of the neighbour's cars. Now, normally I relax when I work on an engine but I wasn't in a mood to help, but when I was heading into the house, I just...couldn't leave mom to struggle alone."

The team all watched as the Nexus Prism launched a Zord Star at great velocity out of the Nexus Prism. Calvin barely dodged out of the way in time as it fired straight past his head, lodging in the wall.

"Whoa!" Wes commented as Koda picked up a large wrench, beginning to brandish it in the direction of the Nexus Prism in fright. "You weren't kidding about that thing!"

"It can really catch you out if you're unwary." Mick replied, prying the Zord Star out of the wall. He inspected it closely, before offering it to Calvin. "It looks like this is yours."

"Um...OK?" Calvin replied. "So, what did I do?"

"Guys, can anyone see...?"

"Here you go Emma." Brody said, picking up the glasses and handing them to her.

"INCOMING!" Sarah yelled as another Power Star launched out. This time, Preston was able to catch it, stumbling a little as he did. He looked to it curiously.

"Wait...this seems to be mine." He said, looking confused. "What's going on with this thing?"

After that, in quick succession, the Red, White and Pink Zord Stars shot out, heading for Brody, Hayley and Sarah respectively. They were grateful for their new Zord Stars, but they were all still a little surprised that the Nexus Prism was giving them the Power Stars now.

"OK, not that I'm complaining, but...why is this thing working now?" Brody asked.

"Wait...When I got home Monica was trying to cook, she was having trouble with some chicken." Hayley recalled. Monica, Aaron's new girlfriend, had been out of the hospital for a few weeks now, but after Psycho Green's attack, she had suffered some nerve damage in her shoulder. She was still undergoing therapy to try and get the mobility back to normal. Unfortunately neither of them earned particularly much, with Aaron working at the aquarium and the university and Monica was an intern which meant she didn't get paid anyway. As much as Aaron would have loved to be home with her more to look after her while she recovered, one of them needed to be earning money to pay the bills. "I helped her cook."

"When I was heading home, there was a woman who got a flat." Brody stated. "I helped her change it."

"I...uh..." She looked to Koda and smiled. As thrilled as she was, it was his news to tell, not hers. "I helped Koda."

"Sometimes it's easy to forget to do the right thing when times are tough." Wes said as he stepped up. "It's easy to prioritise our own problems, but part of doing the right thing is doing the right thing even when it does put you out."

"When Venjix destroyed the world, he enslaved people in his production facilities, including me and my brother." Gemma informed them. "When we escaped, we freed the other prisoners too."

"Energem choose us because we have good heart." Koda said, breaking down his take on it. "My friend Tyler always say, helping always right thing to do. It why Energems choose us. Maybe it why Nexus Prism choose you."

"So, the Nexus Prism wouldn't let us have them until we helped others?" Preston asked.

"Sometimes the first thing we do when times are tough is prioritise ourselves over others." Mick replied.

"Guys...there's just one little problem." Brody said, pointing to the Nexus Prism. They all looked into it. It was a little difficult because it was still glowing, but they quickly realised the problem. There was still one Zord Star in the prism.

"Wait..." Sarah said, doing a quick tally. "Levi."

"The Prism seems to be pretty set on there being six new Zords." Mick sighed. "It looks like the new Megazord needs all six."

"I don't get it, I did help someone!" Levi complained. "Mrs Finch lost her wedding ring down the sink! I helped her get it back!"

"Well, it definitely looks like it's your star." Hayley said thoughtfully. "What else has been going on?"

Levi looked to Mick, who gave him a knowing look. Levi finally realised what he needed to do. He went to Emma, standing in front of her.

"Emma, I was really unfair to you." Levi told her.

"I don't..."

"I'm angry at dad." Levi told her. "I'm...really angry! And I'm confused and I'm...a million other things that I can't even begin to describe or get my head around."

He took a deep breath.

"The thing is, I can dress it up any way I like. I can tell myself that I just assumed you felt the same way, or that by all rights you should feel the same way or that I was protecting you but...the fact is I can't say any of that." He continued. "I was only thinking of myself and I didn't even think about what you might or might not have felt."

He pulled out his cell phone.

"I know that now isn't really the best time, but...I had no right to decide whether or not you should want to speak to dad." He told her. "I have no idea how you feel or what you want, but the one thing I do know is the only one that has the right to make that decision is you. Which is why, I promise, when we get through this, if you want..."

"That's all I've ever wanted." Emma whispered quietly, a couple of tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I have so much that I've thought about but...I just want to know who I am. Where I came from."

"Then I guess as your big brother, I should make that happen." Levi told her. Brody just nodded.

"Yeah, me too." He added.

"DUCK!" Sarah yelled as the last Power Star fired out. It rebounded around the room before finally coming to rest in Levi's hand. Levi just looked to the new star, glowing in his hand. Just then, the alarm went off. They all went to the screens, pulling up the footage.

"OK, as much as I love the touchy-feely moments you guys have around here, that looks like pretty much ideal timing." Mick said to them. "It looks like Odius' latest toy is finally out of the shop."

"Then I say we send it to the scrap yard." Brody called out. "Come on guys!"

As they all ran out, Sandy just sighed and took a seat.

"So Mick, what does someone have to do to get a Zord?" She asked. Mick wanted to give her an answer, he wanted to be able to explain why out of all of the Rangers she was the only one that had never gotten a Zord, while all the others now had been gifted at least two, sometimes more. However, the nature of the Nexus Prism was such that he wasn't sure anyone could explain its decisions. She just sighed and slumped down as Emma came over to her, putting an arm around her. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Out in the city, the Foxatron had arrived, landing in the middle of the city after descending from the Warrior Dome. Odious didn't really feel the need for pointless destruction to draw out the Rangers. To her, she always far preferred when people submitted to her in terror under the mere threat of violence and destruction than just causing it for the sake of it. It wasn't as though she was squeamish about such things. She'd sent more of her followers to their doom over the years than she cared to count, even sacrificing Galvanax when he was no longer of use to her, and yet she always thought it was far more gratifying to give people the choice of just submitting to her rule. After all, as much fun as pointless destruction was, sometimes valuable resources and useful servants were destroyed.

"People of Earth! As promised, I have returned!" She declared through a loud-speaker system. "I now bid anyone foolish enough to resist me to try! My ultimate weapon, my Foxatron will crush anything you put before me!"

She waited for some time, scanning the horizon. There was no sign of anyone.

"No? There's no one that will oppose me?" She asked. "A pity, this is almost too easy to feel satisfying! Now, come from your homes, you will not be harmed, I promise! Come into the streets and bend your knee! Swear fealty to me and you will be..."

Just then, the cockpit of the Foxatron shook, and she had to steady herself with the control panel. She quickly checked the damage report, finding only superficial damage had occurred, at which she went back to looking for the source of the attack.

"What? Who dares to attack...?" She started to ask, before another attack hit. She looked around in time to see a red, bird-shaped aircraft flying overhead.

"What? Who is that?" She demanded.

"It's roadside assistance!" Brody replied over the communications system. "We heard your vehicle was destroyed so we're here to take it to the scrap heap."

"Brody, you're a couple of minutes early." Sarah reminded him. "We have to break it first."

"You! You never learn, do you Rangers?" She scoffed. "How many of your toys do I have to destroy before you get the message?"

The Foxatron then got struck behind the legs, sweeping them up into the air. The whole thing crashed to the ground as another new Zord sped away.

"Oh man, this Serpent Zord is awesome!" Preston called out with barely restrained excitement. Madame Odious started to right her Zord as the Rangers Zords started to come into view. She was now able to see them, brand new Zords she had never seen before.

"I don't know where you got those, but I'll destroy them just like I destroyed...GAHHH!"

"You know, maybe if you spent more time fighting and less time talking we wouldn't have all the time for these free shots." Hayley suggested as she blasted past her.

"Be careful what you wish for! DRONE SWARM!" She called out she launched them. Calvin brought his Turtle Zord to the fore.

"Alright guys, let's see what these new Blaze Zords can do!" He called out. "I'm way overdue for some target practice!"

Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo was snapped out of his funk as he saw the battle unfolding before him. As a promoter, he was always on the lookout for new and powerful fighters, but the only thing that could destroy a show more than a lack of good fighters was one that was simply too powerful. There was only so long that an audience would watch and get enthusiastic about one-sided beatdowns before they remembered that there were other channels and other shows to watch.

In his own bizarre way he loved the Rangers. Not because they kept winning, but because their battles were always exciting. It wasn't often they would destroy their opponents quickly and they did struggle with a few of them meaning that until the final blow was struck, the audience believed that this might be the time they got to see them go down.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rangers are making a comeback with some amazing new Zords!" He called out, beginning to get into the swing of things as the audience started cheering. "Oh my, look at that um...that one destroying those drones! It looks like Madame Odious might just need to come up with a new strategy!"

As he was watching the footage, he heard something coming through on his ear piece.

"Cosmo, there's a call coming in for you!" Wrench told him.

"A call? Now? I'm in the middle of a show here!" He reminded him angrily.

"Uh...I think you're going to want to take this one." Wrench told him. He just sighed.

"Wrench, I'm in the middle of a show and..." He started to say, before the call was put through. He just gulped, and his flesh went incredibly pale. "Uh...you're go for Cosmo!"

Down on Earth, the battle was ongoing, and after the initial surprise of the Rangers coming back at all, Odious was finally able to start clawing her way back into the fight.

She swiped aside, her arm colliding with the Gold Rangers' Zord, sending it swerving wildly, skidding around to regain control.

"Whoa!" He called out.

"OK guys, as powerful as these things are, who says it's time to ramp things up?" Brody asked.

"I'd say that Odious escalated things quite some time ago." Hayley stated.

"Alright, Ninja Blaze Megazord, power up!" He called out. Odious had seen enough Zord battles to know what it meant when the Zords started to come together. She started to launch blasts in the hopes of keeping them from uniting, but the Rangers just powered through regardless, sacrificing a few hits to get the Megazord on its feet.

"Foxatron is just NOT letting up!" Sarah commented.

"I think I might have something here that can help!" Preston said, punching a few controls. "Ninja Blaze Hydro Shield!"

Water formed up from his Serpent Zord between them and Odious, forming up into a shield, which started to take on the brunt of the damage. Brody smiled.

"Nice job Preston!" He called out. "Now, let's push up and shut her down!"

"With pleasure!" Levi called out. "Blaze Zord Fury Punches!"

The Blaze Megazord rushed forward, using the shield to cover until it was right on top of the Foxatron, before breaking through its own shield and hammering home with a series of powerful attacks. Odious defended as best she could, resorting to a desperate close-range blast which damaged both Zords before backing away.

"You...you really think that a few new tricks is enough to stop me?" She demanded.

"I think if you're willing to put yourself on the line like that you have to be getting pretty desperate!" Hayley pointed out. "This one should stop you slithering out of another one! Ninja Blaze Star Blitz!"

Odious tried to avoid the attack, but before she knew it her Zord was being held and bound in place by energy rings. Her controls started sparking and flames leapt out at her as electricity surged through her systems.

"This is it guys, we've finally got her on the ropes!" Brody called out. "Hey, Odious, this is for the other Zords, you break our toys, we break yours! Ninja Blaze Zord, Ninja Blast, FINAL STRIKE!"

The Rangers were a little surprised as they started to glow, like they were teleporting.

"Uh...guys, what's going on?" Sarah asked, before finding herself in a long tube. "OK, anyone know where we are?"

"Sarah, look forward." Preston told her. She looked to the end of the tube, finding herself staring straight at the Foxatron.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding!" She said, before suddenly finding herself launched forward at incredible speed. "THEY'RE NOT JOKING!"

One by one, the Rangers flew towards the Foxatron, fired by the cannon in the centre of the Blaze Megazord's chest. They started to glow with energy before drawing their zords. It was quite a unique experience to be turned into human ammunition, but the Rangers found that the energy allowed them to tear straight through the Foxatron, right to the other side. They all landed on the ground some way off as they turned around in time to watch the Foxatron falling backwards.

"OK, I don't know about you but if there are any more Megazords...I'm insisting on an instruction manual!" Preston stated. "I'd kind of like a heads up if I'm going to be turned into a human cannon ball!"

They all watched as the Foxatron fell to the ground and explosions went off. Brody levelled his sword over his shoulders.

"Well, I for one am just glad to see that back of that thing!" Brody announced. "Show's over, Ninjas Win!"


	32. No Such Thing as Jurisdiction

**A/N: **Well, Beast Morphers is FINALLY about to start in the UK! (YAY!) So needless to say, I'm excited for that. Rest assured I will start writing for it eventually, and what that means is that I'm going to be rounding out Ninja Steel sometime over the next few months.

However, fear not, there is still a way to go with this, including a re-worked final arc that I hope you will like, not to mention a few surprises, some of which may be coming a lot sooner than you think! Enjoy!

Madame Odious had returned to the ship following the destruction of Foxatron. The Rangers had foiled what should have been a perfect moment for her. Foxatron had been the very pinnacle of her genius, the finest weapon ever created, yet somehow the Rangers had found a way to destroy it.

She always knew the power of the Nexus Prism, it was why she was so desperate to get her hands on it. With power like that at her disposal, she would have no rival in this or any reality. Foxatron had been a perfect weapon, and yet the Nexus Prism had somehow found a way to provide the Rangers with brand new Zords, the likes of which she had never imagined to be possible.

Her flesh was charred, and the stench of burnt fur assailed her nostrils. It felt like every one of her nerve endings was on fire, but she had survived on sheer will alone and managed to teleport back to the ship, where she could receive desperately needed medical attention. She was now in her throne room. She had no desire to face Cosmo now. He was no doubt gleefully gloating about her failure and she was positive he was more concerned with the kind of audience he had pulled with her battle with the Rangers. If it wasn't for how dispassionate he was about losing one of his champions, she was starting to wonder if he even wanted the Rangers to lose. However, she had watched him cheerfully shrug off the brutal deaths of some of the most infamous names in the universe on his show, all when it was most profitable to him.

Badonna came into the room, seeing the medical team working on her. They were performing procedures that would ordinarily be performed under a general anaesthetic, but Odious was far too untrusting to allow anyone to put her under. It was a testament to her iron constitution and supernatural level of spite that she was not uttering a single sound as they performed surgery to alleviate the worst of her injuries.

"Badonna, I told you I was not to be disturbed!" She snarled through gritted teeth. Badonna could hardly look on the disfigured and ruined face of her mistress. Even her stomach was struggling to behold the full horror of her injuries. She could only instead focus on what was left of Odious' mask, cracked, and much of it shattered in the destruction of her ultimate weapon. Odious' one eye had already been taken in an earlier battle, a lucky blow by a human no less, but to look on her now…by all rights any creature should have been dead a thousand times over.

"I…I am sorry my mistress." She told her. "Cosmo asked me to deliver a message to you."

"Do I look like I have any interest in what he has to say?" She responded. "Once I replace my mask and my robes, I will show everyone that I am far from finished! The only thing I want from any of you is…"

"Madame Odious, it is an urgent message." She told her.

"I don't care how 'urgent' Cosmo believes this message to be!" She told her. "All I want from him is to find a warrior that will finally…"

Just then, the doors came flying inward as an explosion ripped through. Odious was on her feet, despite her grave injuries, and ready to face whoever had dared to violate her inner sanctum in such a way. A huge, hulking shape emerged from the smoke.

"Who dares…?"

"I dare!" A gravelly voice interrupted her as he stepped into view. Sledge strode into her throne room, followed closely by Poisandra. Power crackled around Odius' hands as she prepared for the worst.

"Ooh, what pretty colours!" Poisandra giggled as she saw the display, showing precisely no signs of the intimidation anyone else showed in Odious' presence. Odious couldn't tell if Poisandra genuinely believed herself to be a match for her, or if she was just genuinely so insane that she had no idea of the threat she posed even in her current state. "I can do that too, want to see?"

Poisandra started to power up, but Sledge gestured to her.

"Calm down my sweet, remember what we discussed." Sledge told her.

"Spoilsport!" She protested with a pout, stamping her foot in a tantrum. "Well, if you're going to just be boring, I'm off to find Curio!"

As she skipped away, Sledge just sighed.

"Love comes in all shapes and sizes doesn't it?" He asked.

"I wouldn't know." Odious snapped. "What are you doing here? I thought you were running errands for Draven these days!"

"Oh, I am. In fact, I'm running one right now." Sledge told her. "I left a message with Cosmo, but…given your surprise I'm guessing he didn't tell you we were coming. That's why I had to make my own way in."

"Message?" She asked, looking to Badonna, who shied away a little. She had tried to warn her, but Odious wouldn't listen. Sledge just stepped closer.

"This ship, these weapons, all this power you have? All of it is still on Draven's account." He told her. "And he's calling in your marker. I've been sent to collect."

Odious knew this was coming. One of the reasons she had ploughed so much of her power and genius into Foxatron was to be able to repel Draven in the event that he ever tried to call in her debt. Even at full health taking on Sledge and Poisandra would be risky, but right now? She didn't have much of a choice.

"What does he want?" She asked him. Sledge picked up her mallet, tossing it to her.

"You'll need this." He told her. "I'll let you get dressed, then you're coming with me."

"Oh joy." She muttered as she sat back down, to allow the medics to continue their work. "Badonna, get me some suitable replacement garments. It seems I have an appointment to keep."

Back on Earth, the Rangers returned to the Command Centre, grateful to have destroyed Foxatron, but knowing that it was still too early to celebrate. Now that Foxatron was out of the way, they still had the matter of the past Rangers who had come seeking their help.

Although they had only been Rangers for around a year, they knew that the power had little respect for territorialism or 'jurisdiction'. Being a Ranger was a commitment and responsibility that transcended just their own city, or even their own planet. The evidence in the room right now was that sometimes their responsibilities would call them across time and space itself.

As they got back, they were greeted by the others enthusiastically. The Ninja Steel Rangers were keeping their own celebrations in check, but it looked like their guests were happy to make at least a little effort to celebrate their win.

"You guys were great out there!" Wes complimented them.

"And that new Megazord? It really powerful!" Koda chimed in. "But…not as powerful as our Zords."

They all laughed a little at the light-hearted teasing, while Preston went to Sandy's side. While she was happy they had won, he could already see some disappointment in her. She had to feel a little left out. While she was a Ranger, and while she understood that it wasn't about the flashy weapons and cool toys, she had once again been left as the only one without a Zord. She'd been able to take part in one Zord battle by borrowing Brody's Lionfire Megazord, but for some inexplicable reason the Nexus Prism still did not present her with a Zord. It had given her all the other weapons the others had, and she had even been able to summon the Lion Fire Armour, but for some reason she was not gifted with a Zord.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence guys, but we know that this isn't just about us. The Nexus Prism reminded us of that." Brody told their guests. "Being a hero is about more than just fighting off an attack, it's about helping those that need it. We made a promise and we intend to keep it."

Levi cast a little look over in Emma's direction as Brody said this. He'd already made a promise of his own. She just nodded in understanding. She'd waited 16 years, but while others were in danger, she could wait a little longer.

"Alright, so what do you need us to do?" Levi asked. Wes took a deep breath.

"OK, this one's going to take a while, there's a lot to explain but believe me, you'll need to understand all of it if you're going to understand what we need you to do." Wes began. "First of all, this isn't the only dimension. There are multiple forms of the universe…"

"You mean the multi-verse?" Calvin asked. Wes just paused.

"Uh…"

"Yeah, you mean how for any moment in time, any decision or any random event that could go one of multiple ways the universe creates a new alternate reality where the other options occurred?" Hayley asked him. He just looked to Gemma, who just shrugged.

"You…understand that?" He asked. They all nodded.

"Yeah, we've even met people from one of the others." Preston recalled. "They were…really not friendly."

"Wow, um…OK, so this might not take as much time as I thought." Wes answered. "One of those dimensions is a place called the Anti-Verse. It's so named because there's a being there of incredible power and a psychotic need for battle so strong, he's quite literally wiped out everything else in his universe."

"Hence, Anti-Verse." Gemma chipped in. The other Rangers all gulped.

"He wiped out everything in his universe?" Calvin asked.

"Yes, and now…well…to put it in its simplest terms he's…bored."

"Bored?" Brody asked.

"There no one left to fight." Koda explained.

"So, what he's been doing is building up his strength and creating an army in the hopes of crossing into other dimensions and doing there what he did in his own dimension." Wes continued with the story. "He's run out of things to conquer there, so he's going to go somewhere he can continue. But…he's trapped in his own dimension, at least for the time being. How long that's the case is anyone's guess, but the worrying thing is, some of his underlings are able to cross dimensions and he's using that to help build his army. A short time ago, we got a report from Panorama about a Ranger going missing. Antonio Garcia, the Gold Samurai Ranger. He was kidnapped from his home."

"Unfortunately while we were investigating it became clear that he wasn't the only Ranger that had gone missing." Gemma told them.

Wes pulled up some images of the missing Rangers. The Ninja Steel Rangers were shocked to see how many of them there were.

"How could so many Rangers go missing without anyone noticing?" Hayley asked.

"It looks like he's been picking his targets carefully. A lot of them are either off the grid or spend long periods off the grid so no one was too suspicious when they didn't check in." Wes explained. "Like TJ, he and the other Space Rangers left Earth a long time ago, they found it too much hassle to remain after everyone learned their identities, and Rocky…he likes his safari trips. Gia, her wife is missing too so that's why no one reported her missing and Tommy, well…they actually replaced him."

"Replaced?" Sarah asked.

"We tried to recruit him, but instead we ran into a robot that had been created to mimic him." Gemma explained. "He's been taking Rangers to replicate them, specifically their powers, to make his army strong."

"We only encountered one, and even for the three of us, taking that one down wasn't easy." Wes told them. "If he's making an army of these things, we have to stop him before he brings his army here."

"So, how exactly are we going to get there?" Brody asked him.

"One of our Megazords, the Paleomax Mega Train, is capable of inter-dimensional travel. Its how I got here, and it's how we'll get there." Gemma said proudly. "It takes a little while for it to recharge between jumps, but it should be able to get us there soon."

"So, what we need to do is get in there, get the other Rangers back, destroy Draven's army and shut down his operation for good." Hayley rhymed off. "Well, that should be easy."

"If Draven's making a robot army, he's probably got some kind of factory or warehouse." Sarah surmised thoughtfully. "If we set explosives we should be able to bring that all down around his ears!" Gemma came over, beaming brightly and putting her arm around Sarah.

"I like this one!" She commented. Wes just nodded.

"Alright, we don't want to wait too long for this." He told them. "He's had some of these Rangers for weeks now. There's no telling what state they'll be in or how many robots he's made but I think it's safe to say we don't want to leave them there any longer than they have to be."

"Alright, then I guess all we have to do is make a few preparations." Brody replied. "OK guys, sort out your cover stories at home, do what you have to do and meet back here in an hour, sound good?"

They all agreed and headed off their separate ways to make their arrangements. Preston looked to Sandy as he noticed she wasn't going anywhere.

"Sandy, don't you have to let our parents know you're not coming home until later?" He asked her.

"I…I don't really know how much use I'll be." She mumbled. "I mean, you have the rest of the guys, and three experienced Rangers, maybe more if you can get the others free and they're able to fight…I'd probably just get in the way."

"Hey, you've been amazing." Preston assured her.

"I don't even have a Zord and…"

"Hey, we won't have any either." Preston reminded her. "My Dragon Zord is cool and everything, but last time I checked, one thing it's not built for is inter-dimensional travel."

"Preston, this sounds really big." She reiterated. "Maybe it's not one for the rookie."

"Well, sports aren't really my thing, but I have heard that something a lot of sports teams do is to substitute on rookie players in big games." Preston said nervously. "That way, they're being backed up by veteran players and get big-match experience."

"But…"

"Hey, no buts." Preston put down a little more forcefully. "They came to ask for this team's help. Not the Lightspeed Rangers, not the Jungle Fury Rangers and not the Mystic Force, us. You're on this team, so that means you're part of this."

She smiled a little as he said this.

"So, how about you text your mom, tell her you're going to the arcade with me or something?" He suggested. Sandy brought out her phone and started to craft the text.

Elsewhere in the school, Hayley and Sarah were heading for their lockers to put away some of their things in preparation for the trip. Sarah stopped by her locker, preparing to put away her phone. Being as active as she was, it wasn't the first time she had lost a phone. Usually it was a simple matter of retracing her steps to find it, but she somehow didn't feel like she would want to go to a place called 'the Anti-Verse' more than once and figured it would be safer to leave it behind.

She decided to check her messages quickly and send a text to her parents to explain why she would be home late. She really didn't want them to worry, she was going to be worrying enough as it was. It was hard to imagine a place where someone had wiped out everything else. While Gemma had explained about her world, it made sense in a macabre way for a computer to destroy humanity. Computers didn't really need humans once AI became self-aware and so it would really not cause it too much difficulty being without humans. For another living creature to do that? She couldn't imagine anything even wanting to do that never mind anything else.

She had just finished sending the text to her parents and opened another can of Red Bull. She was still struggling with only a little sleep thanks to the stupid dreams about Victor. It was just…VICTOR!

"Come on girl, get your head in the game." She muttered to herself. "You need to focus on the task at hand, not…VICTOR!"

She tried to think of what people had said worked when they were experiencing such things. Cold shower? She'd tried it, and that only really curbed the immediate impulse. Unless she planned on living in a shower for the foreseeable future that didn't help matters. BASEBALL! People always said that thinking about baseball helped! That was it, baseball, baseball was about as far from sexy as she could think of. The school sometimes had the kids play baseball when the weather was good and it was in season. She could remember being bored just waiting for her turn at bat…Victor was at bat…and as he took his position she could remember him standing, getting a good view of his ass…

"Damn it Victor!" She snapped. OK, what else was she able to do? Remember things that irritated her about him or made him seem like the last guy on Earth she would want to…

She had a thought! The video of his battle with Spinferno was still on YouTube! She pulled up the video and started watching it. She could see him flailing around, trying to get the fire extinguisher to work, Spinferno burning him. He looked completely ridiculous running around trying to put out the flames burning on his butt!

"Oh man, THAT seems like a lifetime ago!" Victor said, causing Sarah to shriek a little as she realised he had come up behind her.

"Um…Victor, hi!" She said nervously, forcing a smile as she looked to him. She tried to lean casually on the locker, but missed and ended up stumbling awkwardly. "Um…what are you doing here?"

"Getting some gym gear." He told her, opening his own locker and getting it out. "You know, that video was so popular that when it was monetised, it paid for all my gym gear for the rest of the year!"

"You don't say!" She replied, trying to get her phone to shut off the embarrassing video.

"Well, I'm not short of protein bars." He said, flashing her a smile. "Not to mention it got me this amazing new t-shirt!"

He pulled off his shirt, forcing Sarah to look away while he pulled on a muscle shirt. He stood, flexing in it for a moment.

"What do you think?" He asked. He gestured to the logo. "Work like a Ranger! It's your merchandise! Neat huh?"

"Um…yeah…it's…something alright." Sarah said as she started to become flustered. "Look, I really need to go, I'll…catch you around OK?"

As she closed her locker and started to walk away, stumbling a little as she went, Victor just scratched his head.

"I thought it was a pretty good shirt." He said, before shrugging and walking away. A little way off, Hayley closed over her locker, a massive grin crossing her face as she witnessed the entire thing.

"Oh…my…GOD!" She laughed to herself. "I really hope we get through this Draven thing, because this is WAY too good!"


	33. Into the Anti-Verse

In the Anti-Verse, Odious and Sledge entered the castle, making their way towards Lord Draven's chambers. It had been some time since she had seen Draven face-to-face. He had problems being able to cross the dimensional barrier, and when he did it cost him dearly in power. It was the one thing that prevented him from making his move for conquest beyond the borders of his own reality. It was the one thing that had given her a chance to escape him.

It seemed so long ago that she was drifting in space, her ship crippled and helpless, waiting for either some passing ship to take pity on them and attempt a rescue or inevitable oblivion when supplies finally ran out. Draven had indeed been generous, more than generous! He had gifted her not only his servant Badonna, and the means to not only repair but upgrade her ship and rebuild her forces, but he had done so asking only 'a favour' in return. On the surface this was a very good deal, and at the time she was certainly in no position to refuse, but she knew that no one, particularly no one as powerful as Draven got that powerful by being so generous. The fact he hadn't named a price was itself dangerous. 'A favour' was perhaps one of the most costly prices anyone could name. Now though, she was being brought before him to pay the piper.

Every move was accompanied by searing pain. She'd gotten robes and a new mask to cover as much as possible her injuries, and such was her determination she wasn't showing any hint of pain, but between Sledge, Poisandra and Draven, she knew her odds of surviving if she didn't play along with whatever he demanded were somewhere between impossible and non-existent. In the main chamber, he was standing over the ramparts, looking down on the work being done to repair the latest damage done to his facility.

"You summoned me?" She asked dryly. She wasn't even going to try and pretend this was anything other than it was. This wasn't a pleasant chat between allies; this was a shake-down. Draven was calling in her debt. She had hoped to avoid ever having to repay him, and if her Foxatron hadn't been defeated she would have held out. After all, between her ultimate weapon and his difficulty in crossing the dimensional barrier it wouldn't have been like he was in a position to force her to honour her end of the deal. Draven chuckled.

"Madame Odious, you're well I presume?" He asked her in an insincere manner. She didn't doubt for a minute he was taking great delight in her current state. As much of a show of strength as she was putting on, it wasn't as though she could hide completely the fact she was not a hundred percent. Hell, it didn't take her own sensitive sense of smell to be able to smell the burnt flesh and fur.

"It looks like we all have our difficulties." She remarked, looking to the repairs. Draven let out a little dissatisfied grunt, but it only elicited a little smirk from Odious. Even in this position she was not going to be mocked.

"I have been building this army long enough! My patience is growing thin!" He snapped as he confronted her. "When I found you, you were on your way to oblivion. The fact you're even standing here is down to me."

"Yes, Sledge mentioned the debt." Odious replied. "So, what exactly would you like me to give you?"

Draven snapped his fingers, at which a few robots came in, carrying a large, ornate, black chest, trimmed in cold with intricate patterns. They put it down between him and Odious, at which he opened it up. Odious took a look inside, before sighing and looking back to him.

"Well, they're...arrows." She commented.

"Yes, they're arrows, but they are also so much more." Draven explained, panning his hand over them. "I have spared no resources or expense in crafting them, so that they may carry the power needed to rupture the dimensional barrier and allow me to march with my army across the multi-verse. All I need is someone to power them up for me!"

"And you would like me to do that for you?" She asked him. Draven just nodded.

"Now would be a good time." He said insistently. Odious cast a look around, seeing Poisandra giggling gleefully, while Sledge had already put his finger on the trigger of his blaster. She always knew the price would be a steep one. Giving Draven free reign to enter her own reality would erase any protection she had from him, and force her to consider how she could prevent him taking over the universe before she could, or worse...destroying it before she had a chance to seize power. Still, right now she didn't see she had much choice. Reneging on her debt was not an option. She would have to figure out another way to deal with him at a later date.

She pulled out her mallet and started chanting, at which the arrows started to glow and change shape. Draven watched, as she powered up his arrows with her magic. Once she stopped chanting and stepped away, the arrows continued to glow for a moment, before the power subsided.

"Is that it?" He asked her.

"Try and see for yourself." She beckoned him. Draven pulled one of the arrows from the box reluctantly. He only had three; he wasn't going to waste them if he could help it. Pulling out his bow, he notched the first arrow, before drawing back the bow string. He let loose the arrow, which soared into the sky in a streak of light, penetrating the heavens in a burst of red lightning. The sky turned blood red and a huge fissure tore open across the sky.

"Satisfied?" She asked him. He just nodded, but after a moment, the sky returned to its normal colour and the fissure closed.

"WHAT?" He screamed, staring at her. "What is this?"

"Tearing open dimensions is a tricky business..."

"It wasn't even open for ONE MINUTE!" He yelled. "How am I to bring my army through a fissure that isn't open long enough..."

"This is only the first stage." Odious told him. "In a few hours, the sky will turn red again. When it does, you need to fire another arrow. With each arrow, the fissure will be torn open for longer until with the third and final arrow, the fissure will be open permanently!"

"It better be!" He warned her. It was just then; he noticed a movement on one of the ramparts. He squinted to see, but as soon as he looked that way, there was a fast movement, way too fast to be one of his patrols.

"Intruder!" He yelled, pointing for the ramparts. Sledge aimed his cannon at the turret, firing a powerful blast which utterly destroyed the rampart. Draven turned on him in an instant, shoving him roughly.

"FIND THEM!" He yelled. Sledge just looked to the point in his armour he had struck, before looking up to him. He just shrugged.

"This will cost extra." He reminded him. "Come on Poisandra. Looks like we're hunting rats!"

Over in the Rangers' reality, there was a massive panic as the sky was literally torn asunder by red lightning and the sky turned blood red, bathing the streets in an ominous red glow. Wes, Brody and Levi all stared up at the fissure opening up in the sky as people started to flee in a panic. There were horns blaring and even some fender benders as people tried to get away quickly.

"I'm guessing that's not a good sign." Levi commented.

"I watched dozens of wormholes open up over my home city, and even I'm nervous about this." Wes said as the others started to assemble. Gemma had a device in her hands, performing scans of the phenomena.

"There's a spike in radiation not native to this reality." Gemma informed them. "It looks like its starting."

"I really hoped we'd have more time." Wes agreed as the last arrivals came. Sarah and Hayley got to the assembled Rangers just as the fissure closed over and the sky started to turn back to its natural colour.

"I don't know what happened, but I'm thinking the sky turning unnatural colours isn't good." Sarah commented.

"It isn't." Wes stated. "It means we have a lot less time than I thought we did. Alright, is everyone ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Sandy muttered. Preston put his arm around her, holding her close. Wes looked to Gemma.

"Alright, time to call our ride." He told her. Gemma punched a few keys on her device, at which there was a rumble that caused the ground to shake, before in a burst of light and a bright explosion a huge, trundling train came rushing into view. The carriages were massive, heavily armoured, and each of them had the front shaped into the visage of an ancient creature. Gemma smiled and turned towards them.

"Say hello to the Paleomax Mega Train!" She declared. Sarah held up a hand. "What?"

"Is that one meant to be a mammoth?" She asked. "Because...a mammoth isn't really a dinosaur."

The rest of her team all groaned.

"What?" It's not!" She protested.

"Sarah, the first team had a mammoth zord..."

"And it wasn't a dinosaur then either!" She stated. "Neither was a sabre tooth tiger...if you want to get technical the pterodactyl wasn't either!"

"What? You're crazy!" Levi protested. "The pterodactyl is totally a dinosaur!"

"It isn't, and I can tell you exactly why it doesn't classify as..."

"This is what happens when one of your team used to work in a dinosaur museum!" Brody groaned. "Sarah, I promise you can take us to Amber Beach and have Ms Morgan..."

"DOCTOR Morgan!" Sarah corrected him.

"Dr Morgan explain to us in detail what is and isn't a dinosaur when we get back." Brody promised her. "Until then...red sky, inter dimensional psychopath, missing Rangers? A little focus please?"

"Oh, she's focused alright." Hayley said with a knowing tone in her voice. "But not on the mission, right Sarah?"

"Well, everyone better GET focused." Wes stated. "Because there might be ten of us, but we still have no idea what we're facing on the other side."

"Right...got it." Sarah replied. Gemma opened the door in one of the carriages, hopping in, before gesturing them all inside.

"Alright, all aboard! Next stop, the Anti-Verse!" She told them. The Rangers all climbed aboard, finding their way inside.

"Hey, this isn't too bad, this carriage is pretty nice!" Calvin stated, taking a seat in a large, comfortable seat that was more like a big couch than a normal train seat. "Does this thing have Wi-Fi?"

"The password is self-assembling nano-fiber formed with an inter-cellular shame memory alloy." She told him. Calvin just blinked and put his phone away.

"On second thought...the journey's probably not going to be that long." He replied.

As the Paleomax Mega Train started up, rolling out and disappearing in a bright flash, Mick staggered back a few paces.

"That's quite a ride Gemma has isn't it?" He asked. "Emma?"

He turned around, only to realise that Emma wasn't with him. He started to spin around, looking this way and that, before starting to flail a little nervously.

"Um...that's not good." He remarked to himself. "Not even five minutes and I've lost Emma and...and now I'm talking to myself. Good mentoring Mick. Really, great!"

There was a burst of light, and the Paleomax Megatrain burst through into the Anti-Verse. No one knew what to expect, which created a problem right away. The train appeared right in the middle of a forest! They crashed through trees, tearing up plants and sending the local fauna flying in all directions as they came through. In the carriage, everyone held on for dear life.

"Is this how these missions normally go?" Brody asked.

"Hey, if you think this is a rough landing, try going to the moon with Tommy at the wheel!" Wes commented as he grabbed onto some of the fixtures, securing himself in space.

"Who the hell is Tommy?" Sarah asked.

"PLEASE tell me you'll say that when we find him!" Wes replied with a wicked smirk on his face as the train finally came to a halt. Gemma came in from the engine, de-morphing as she went.

"Alright, here we are! The Anti-Verse!" She declared cheerfully. "Sorry about the uh..."

"Boom?" Hayley asked her. Gemma just nodded.

"Yeah...that." She agreed as they all disembarked. They clambered out of the train, before looking around.

"Well, for a planet with no life, there's certainly a lot of...uh..."

"Yeah, he just killed all the creatures that were a threat to him." Wes clarified. "As for this...well...I guess since only he lives here he figured there's not much point building this planet up."

"The forest should make it easier for us to approach unseen." Brody commented. "But we can't really see much down here. We should probably find higher ground to see if we can find where..."

"This way." Koda declared. Brody just stared at him.

"O...kay." He answered. "Not that I doubt you but...what makes you say...?"

"Ground this way go uphill." Koda explained. "Also, Draven home only settlement on planet right?"

"I guess." Calvin responded. Koda just sniffed the air.

"This direction smell like smog." He told them. "No one else polluting."

"The guy literally lived or died based on knowing the land." Sarah said with a shrug. "If we're taking a show of hands, I'm voting we go with Koda."

"My scanner is showing energy readings coming from that direction." Gemma confirmed. "But uh...there are not too many forests where I'm from so I say we go with Koda too."

"Works for me, I guess." Brody declared. "OK, Koda, lead the way. See if you can't find somewhere we can get a good view of what we're up against."

As they all started to head off, Wes just smiled and shook his head.

"So much for leading this mission." He remarked as he followed on.

Back in the Ranger's world, Emma was walking along the side of a road out of town. She had told slipped away when the Rangers were leaving, but instead of heading home, she had taken more than a little bit of a detour.

Levi had promised her that he would take her to meet Dane, that he would set up a time and a place where they could meet, but as time went on, there was a kind of pull, a feeling she just couldn't shake. Although Levi had agreed to help her make that final step, after sixteen long years, she was now closer than she had ever been to finding out who she was.

Her mother had never spoken ill of Dane. For much of her life, Emma could only remember her mom being lonely and saying that they couldn't be with her father. She started to explain about their lives as ninja and started to begin training Emma, but between Emma's lack of her talent and her mother falling ill, it wasn't long before training was no longer possible.

Sandy had already texted home, making up a story about a sleepover which Sandy knew would cover for them. It meant it would be some time before her parents would miss her. She trudged along the road, hiking her backpack further up onto her back. Getting to a sign, she took a look at it.

"Millport...four miles?" She screeched, before looking back. She sighed as she realised how far she'd already come. Although she was 16, she'd already flunked driver's ed. Once. It wasn't like she meant to park the instructor's car on top of the school water feature! But it would be a while before she was able to take the test again, and with no one around she could ask for a lift, she had started walking, apparently completely unaware how far from the city Millport really was. She'd seen fields around the city and presumed that meant the town wasn't far, but like many she had underestimated how large farm lands could be.

She took a seat for a moment by the side of the road to rest. She wasn't sure exactly how far she had come, making it a little tough to determine if she would be better off going back, or carrying on in the hopes of finding the Romero Farm.

She was starting to get up, starting to make her decision when a car pulled up, flashing its headlights. At first she wondered if Mick had caught up with her and was going to take her home, but pretty soon a stranger got out, inspecting her thoughtfully.

"You're quite a long way out." He commented. "You alright?"

"Uh...just a little turned around." She said, trying to think about the best course of action. "Um...you wouldn't happen to know where the Romero Farm is would you?"

"Wow, you are a long way out!" He chuckled. "It's up that road then you take the dirt track off, but it's quite a hike."

"That's what I was afraid of." She commented. "Maybe...maybe I should head back to Summer Cove..."

"You're not really much closer to there than you are the Romero Farm." He informed her. "Tell you what, I'm heading that direction anyway, I can at least drop you closer to the Romero Farm if you want."

Emma paused and thought about this for a moment. She had no idea who this guy was. He could be literally anyone. However, he had told her one thing that kept ringing in her mind. He knew where the Romero Farm was. Sixteen years, sixteen years of only a few old pictures and her mother's stories and diaries to tell her who her father was, and here she was only a few miles from being able to finally see him for herself.

"Yeah, alright." She commented. The man took the bag from her, tossing it in the back seat, before opening the passenger door for her. Taking a deep breath, Emma got in and buckled up her seatbelt.

Over in the Anti-Verse, Koda scrambled out onto a rocky peak, getting a look out over the forest. He pointed towards a castle a little way off.

"There." He declared.

"Wow, you weren't kidding. That fortress is pretty much the only man-made thing on the planet by the looks of things." Levi commented.

"I can't get over all this forest." Gemma gasped, looking around. Trees extended as far as the eye could see in all directions. "I come from a world destroyed too, but...where I come from it's still mostly desert. I don't think I've ever seen so much...well...wow!" However, just then the sky started to turn an ominous shade of red. It made them all feel uneasy as they started to look around.

"OK, what's going on?" Calvin asked, fumbling around with his hand, finding Hayley's and holding on. The White Ranger grabbed onto his arm nervously.

"Guys, check it out!" Wes stated as he looked to the ramparts, seeing a huge figure coming out. "That right there, that's Lord Draven."

"Big guy with the bow?" Brody asked. "Got it!"

"He looks tough." Levi said thoughtfully. "If we can avoid taking him on head-on it might be for the best."

"What's he doing?" Sarah asked as she watched him nock an arrow into his bow. "Wait, you don't think he sees us do you?"

"I hope not." Wes stated. They watched as he aimed almost straight up in the air, losing an arrow which shot out in a streak of light. They all stumbled, Sandy falling over the edge, only barely being able to grab on to save herself from falling while the rest were struggling to stay on their feet as the sky exploded in red lightning. Once more, the fissure tore open and the sky turned blood red. Preston saw her hanging on and panicked.

"SANDY!" He called out, diving onto the ground and grabbing her wrist. Sarah and Hayley quickly joined him, helping pull Sandy back up to safety.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"Apart from almost ending up a pancake before the fight even starts? Sure." She replied. Preston hated to hear her talk that way about herself. It was true that Sandy was behind the others in terms of her training, but she had already proven herself in his eyes.

"Guys, it's the same energy my scanner found before!" Gemma told them. "That's how he's opening the fissure."

The fissure started to close over, and the lightning dissipated before the sky returned to its natural colour. The entire team all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"OK, that was definitely longer than the last one." Hayley said. Gemma nodded to confirm the detail.

"The first time it was only one minute, this time it was nearly five." She told them. "He must be hoping to tear it open a little more at a time."

"I guess that means getting our friends and getting out without a fight is off the table then?" Calvin sighed.

"Definitely." Wes put down flatly. "I have no idea how this tech works, but I for one say we can only presume we don't have much time. We need to end this thing now."

"Alright, then let's look for a way in." Brody stated. "That dam has to be how he powers the factory, but it provides us with a bridge that'll get us right up close to the castle."

"It's exposed." Wes pointed out.

"If we try going through the forest it could take us hours." Sarah said thoughtfully. "We might not have that long."

"Sure, but...it's right out in the open. He could see us coming!" Wes reiterated.

"Right now, I don't think we have time to make another call." Brody told him. "OK, we try and do this quiet as long as possible, but speed is of the essence. If or when the alarm is raised, we morph and hit them fast and hard. Everyone got it?"

"Got it." They chorused.

"Cool." Brody stated. "Come on. Let's go get our friends."


	34. Storm The Fortress

Back in the Rangers' reality, Emma was sitting in the passenger seat of the stranger's car, looking out the window as she thought about the fact that soon she would be meeting her father. All those years, all the questions she wanted to ask, all of them floated around in her brain as she tried to rehearse over and over again how she would even begin. Simply knocking on someone's door and saying "Hi, I'm your daughter" didn't somehow seem like the way to do it, but what was?

The car pulled over to the side of the road, rousing her attention. However, as she was about to leave, the button on the door suddenly went down, locking the door. She looked across to the stranger.

"You locked the door." She said nervously.

"I did." He said with a little smirk. "Now, what are you willing to do to give me to unlock it?"

"I…uh…" She started to stammer, realising that she was now in a dangerous situation. She was locked in the car with a much larger stranger. Even if she was a much better ninja or…had any appreciable Martial Arts skills at all, the odds were in his favour. She started rummaging around in her bag and her pockets, before finding a couple of crumpled up dollar bills and some change.

"I have uh…about three dollars sixty five?" She offered. "That should cover some of the gas right?"

"I think we both know that's not what I meant." He replied, reaching over. Emma whipped out an aerosol can, some deodorant she had in her bag and started spraying it into his face. While not exactly a can of mace, the principle was the same. Between the propellant and the alcohol content of the spray, a blast straight in the face was far from a pleasant experience.

"BITCH!" He spluttered as he started coughing and fighting for breath. Emma caught some of it too, and it was hard to see, but she knew that this might be her only shot. She threw herself across his lap, fumbling around to release the door lock, before scrambling out. She fell to the ground as he caught one of her ankles. "You little bitch, you're going to pay for…"

He didn't get to finish. Even with the limited abilities she had, it wasn't really difficult to throw her free leg back, catching him straight in the face. As soon as he let go, she scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could, disappearing into the night.

Back in the Anti-Verse, the assembled team found their way to a stairway that led up towards the bridge across the dam. From this point on, they knew they were going to be a lot more exposed and so they needed to move quickly.

Draven had already fired two arrows, and they didn't know how many more he needed to fire before he fissure would be open long enough for him to march through his army. All they knew was that if they were going to have to face down his army, they would rather do it here in his back yard than in their own dimension where there was no telling how severe the casualties would be by the time the last shots were fired.

"This way!" Wes said, leading them up the last flight of stairs towards the bridge. He stopped a little way short of the top as he heard some footsteps. "OK, ready Koda?"

Koda leapt into action, jumping up onto the guard rail, grabbing the guard and throwing him down onto the stairs, where Preston finished it off. Koda looked down to him and smiled as he hopped back down.

"Good job, Preston!" He said. "We make good team!"

"The best!" He replied, fist-bumping him. Brody looked to the guard on the stairs.

"Basher Bot." He said, looking to Gemma and Wes. "That's one of Odious' goons."

"Odious, that's your Big Bad isn't it?" Gemma asked.

"She's also big into magic." Preston added. "I guess now we know how Draven suddenly got the ability to send henchmen to our dimension."

"So, we have Draven, Odious and Sledge all in on this?" Hayley said with a shudder. "Is anyone else really hoping we're not getting a major bad-guy convention?"

"Fortunately I don't think there are too many of the old bad guys still around." Wes told them.

"I just hope we don't run into our friend from Zandar again." Calvin muttered as they made their move up onto the dam.

"Alright, not far to go, if we're lucky it'll be just a little longer until they…"

"Uh…too late." Gemma said as she pointed to the other end of the dam, where some Kudabots were scrambling out to meet them. They were carrying a very heavy looking weapon.

"They've got a cannon!" Preston stated.

"That other Basher Bot must have raised the alarm." Wes surmised.

"Guys, I think our problems just got a lot bigger." Levi said, pointing to the other end, where another group were starting to set up a cannon. They were now trapped between both groups, right in the firing line of the cannon.

"Aw man, this isn't good." Wes commented.

"Hey, you do realise that you're pointing those cannons right at each other right?" Calvin yelled. "If you open fire you'll get us, sure, but it'll tear straight through and you'll blow each other away too!"

"Cal? They're robots." Gemma reminded him. "Self-preservation instinct isn't really a problem for them."

"Oh…shit." Calvin gulped as he saw them preparing to fire. "Anyone else got any ideas?"

"Take the ones in front of you!" A voice called out. They all turned in time to see a stranger in yellow rush in, beginning to attack the kudabots on the side they had come from. The rest of the team pulled out their blasters and quickly made short work of the kudabots on the other side.

They turned back to see who had some in for the eleventh hour save, seeing the Yellow Megaforce Ranger, swinging and hacking away with her Tiger Claw wildly. She did destroy the kudabots, but it looked like she was relying a lot more on the power provided by her suit and her weapon than any real kind of fighting style. As she smashed the last one to pieces, before throwing the cannon over the side, she turned to face them.

"Hey, thanks for the save." Brody said. "So, how did you escape?"

"She no escape. That no Gia." Koda said with a smile as he ran over, hugging the Yellow Ranger. She de-morphed, letting them see her. It was a woman with long, artificially red hair and wearing a pair of jeans and an oversized shirt that was splattered with paint. She turned to the others, seeing the confused looks on their faces.

"Um…hi…I'm Cat." She introduced herself. "Gia's wife?"

"Of course, we um…we fought together against the Armada." Wes said politely. She just shook her head.

"You don't need to be polite. I thought…hoped…that would be a one-shot deal for me too." She replied. "But when Tommy came to collect Gia for a mission something just seemed a little off about him. He didn't seem to know who I was or want me to come with her even when I offered to help, so I grabbed my morpher and I followed them. I saw Sledge take them, but if Gia couldn't beat them on her own, I knew I'd never be able to so I stowed away on his ship, hoping to be able to rescue her."

"I'm guessing it didn't work out that way?" Hayley asked her. Cat shook her head sadly.

"I knew that I was stuck here, I couldn't find a way home and I'd never be able to take them all on by myself. My communicator didn't work out here so I've been here ever since." She told them.

"Well, I guess that answers why you never reported Gia missing." Calvin stated.

"Cat, I'm sorry it took us so long to figure out what's been going on, but we're here to help now." Wes told her. "Draven's been using the Rangers to…"

"To make a robot army, yes, I know." She interrupted him. "I've been here for…well…I'm not really sure how long I've been here. Since Gia went missing I guess. I've been keeping an eye on Draven's operation, trying to find a way in to get the others out and causing as much disruption as I can to his manufacturing operation. It's…not been as much as I'd hoped."

"Hey, the fact these things aren't already marching down Summer Cove Main Street is good enough for me." Sarah comforted her. "Draven has these arrows, he's using them to open a way to get to our dimension. He's already fired two, but we don't know how many more he needs to…"

"I saw those arrows." Cat told them. "He had three."

"Three?" Brody asked, looking worried. They all had the same thought. They'd already seen the fissure open twice. If he only had three arrows then that meant he only had to fire one more.

"I heard him talking with the others." She told them. "The woman said he needs to fire the arrows when the sky turns red."

"He's already fired two, which means we're definitely on the last-chance saloon." Levi commented as he looked up to the fortress. "OK, so now we need to rescue the Rangers, destroy his army and his production plant, and destroy the last arrow, all before the sky turns red again."

"If he fires that third arrow, we're toast." Sarah agreed. "We need to finish things here."

"We'll split up." Hayley suggested.

"We'll find the arrow." Brody said, gesturing to himself and Sarah. "If we destroy that arrow, then he's stuck right here."

"We'll deal with the factory." Calvin said, rounding up the rest of the ninjas. "No factory, no more robots."

"Then I guess that leaves us to find the dungeons." Wes answered. "Cat, do you know where…?"

"I can take you right there." She told them. "I got pretty close once, but…well…"

"Now you not alone." Koda assured her. "I promise, we get Gia back."

"OK, let's go!" Wes said as they all headed off, splitting up to seek out their objectives. A little way off, Sledge and Poisandra watched, having finally tracked Cat down.

"Sledgeums, look, there are Rangers all over the place!" She whined. Sledge just nodded in agreement.

"Draven's not paying us nearly enough to go through all of them for the Yellow one." He commented, gesturing away. "Come on. We need to talk to Draven. If he wants us to fight, he's going to have to renegotiate our rate."

Back in the Rangers' dimension, Emma wandered along the road, frightened and distraught as she tried to find her way. In her panic to get away from her attacker she had gotten completely turned around and now had no idea where she was. She had no real idea if she was heading in the right direction or even if she was heading towards any kind of civilisation at all.

She wiped her face with her sleeve as she tried to clear her vision of her tears. She felt relieved when she finally found a collection of buildings, the only man-made things she'd seen since she got away from the truck.

She didn't really know what was there, or who, but she knew she didn't really have much else in the way of a choice. She was so far from town now she could wander for days with no hope of finding her way back towards Summer Cove.

When she got to the buildings, she was relieved to see the sign declaring that she had found Millport. She'd heard it was a small town, but she couldn't imagine any town being this small. The main town only consisted of a couple of businesses, the people that lived around here were mainly farmers and didn't actually live in the main town. The buildings were of an old style, making it look a little like something out of a Western movie, but much of it looked like it had been built only a couple of years ago at most. There was a marked difference in the weathering in the wood between some of the buildings making some look a lot older than others.

She could only see one business that was open, the saloon. She made her way over, opening up the door and coming inside.

"I'm sorry, this is a licenced premises." The barmaid told her. "You need to be over 21 to…"

She suddenly stopped as she saw Emma leaning against the wall, starting to sob. She came out from behind the bar, running over to her.

"Hey, hey, are you alright?" She asked.

"I want to go home!" Emma told her.

"It's…it's alright honey, we'll help you." She told her sympathetically. "Do you have a cell phone? Is there anyone you want us to call?"

"I tried, I don't know if the battery died or if it's broken or…I just want to go home!" She sobbed. The barmaid grabbed her and held onto her.

"Don't worry sweetie, whatever happened, you're safe now." She assured her, pulling out her cell phone. "Look, mine works, do you know a number you want us to call?"

Emma took the phone from her and started to dial.

Back in the Anti-Verse, Draven was walking the hallways of his fortress when an alarm sounded. He snatched his bow from his back and ran to the nearest window, looking outside in time to see the Ninja Steel Rangers fighting some Basher Bots. He immediately got onto his communicator.

"Odious, the Rangers are here!" He called her. "Where are you?"

There was no answer.

"Sledge, where are you?" He demanded. Sledge answered his communicator, looking into the viewing screen.

"Ah, Draven. So glad to hear from you." Sledge told him insincerely. "Does there seem to be a problem?"

"A problem? I'll say there's a problem! There are Rangers all over my compound!" He yelled.

"Oh, well, that seems unfortunate…and expensive." Sledge told him. Draven just growled in anger.

"I have paid you more than enough!" He roared. "I want you to…"

"I'm sorry, you paid me by the Ranger, and you paid me cash on delivery." Sledge reminded him. "Now, that was all fine and well when I was taking one at a time, but now you want me to take on a dozen or more, well…that's going to increase the danger costs and…"

"Sledge, you better get back here and…"

"I'm sorry, but there comes a time when a contract is no longer worth the risk." Sledge told him matter-of-factly, starting up the engines of his ship. "Good luck with the Rangers. You know how to reach me if you change your mind."

Draven watched as Sledge's ship blasted off, disappearing in a blinding flash through the dimensional barrier.

"Sledge…SLEDGE!" Draven screamed. "That lousy, mercenary piece of…Well, it looks like if I want something done right, I need to do it myself! TASTE MY WRATH RANGERS!"

With that, he powered up an energy arrow, which he fired into the air. It came down, raining down energy arrows on them. They were all knocked to the ground.

"Good, it looks like he's taken the bait." Brody grunted as they all struggled back to their feet. "That should give the others a chance to find the prisoners."

"Yeah, that's great and all." Calvin muttered. "But just once, I'd love it if WE didn't have to be the bait."

"I just hope the bait doesn't get eaten!" Sarah called out. "Heads up, because here he comes!"

With that, Draven leapt from the window, plummeting to the ground, shattering the stone as he landed.

"Uh…Preston?" Sandy asked. "You still sure I'm ready for this?"

He just made a quick hand gesture.

"Well, that's reassuring." She replied as he charged towards them.

Meanwhile, inside the fortress, Wes, Cat, Koda and Gemma had found their way through the fortress, finding their way into the laboratory. Inside, they found the imprisoned Rangers strapped into machines, which they assumed was how Draven was replicating their powers. There were a couple of Basher Bots standing guard.

"There they are!" Cat shrieked. They immediately ran to the attack, taking down the Basher Bots in short order. Gemma looked to the door.

"As much as I love boom time, there's no way no one heard that. We'll be getting company real soon." She pointed out, before heading to the computers. "Keep an eye on the door, it'll just take me a little while to figure out how to open…"

Cat though morphed and immediately swung her Tiger Claw into the machine Gia was strapped to, smashing it to pieces. She got to work, smashing off her restraints as Gia started to come to.

"Or, since we're going to be getting company soon anyway, we could always go for that option." Gemma replied as she, Koda and Wes morphed, getting to work freeing the others. Cat helped Gia sit up as she slowly started to come to.

"Whoa, what happened?" TJ asked, looking around at the fortress.

"The last thing I remember was meeting with Tommy…and then I saw Sledge, and then…" She started to say, before seeing Tommy at the other end of the room, slowly getting her bearings. "Then you attacked me and…"

"It wasn't him." Cat said, pulling off her helmet cradling Gia's face gently with her hand, turning her attention towards her. "You've been gone…way too long."

She pulled in, kissing her passionately. Wes interrupted, clearing his throat to remind them of the position they were in.

"OK, the cliff-notes version is, you were all captured by Lord Draven, who used your powers to create an army of robots with Ranger powers."

"Giving those robots Ranger powers will make them tough to beat." Trent stated. "I'm not sure if there's much on Earth that'd be able to stand up to them."

"Which is why we have to stop them here." Tommy said as he started to come to. "Guys, did you find my family?"

"Not yet." Wes told him honestly. "But we'll get to it. Right now, we need to stop Draven. The Ninja Steel Rangers are keeping him busy."

"Then I say we help them out." Antonio said, retrieving their morphers from the computer, throwing them to their respective owners. "I for one am going for Gold!"

They started to file out, leaving Gia to admire her wife for a moment.

"So much for one-and-done eh?" She asked. "It has to be said, I do kind of like seeing you back in the Spandex."

"Yeah, well…maybe retirement will stick the second time." She replied with a shrug as Gia morphed into her Corsair Ranger mode and they both headed off to help the others.

Tommy hung back for a moment, letting the others go first. He wanted to help the Rangers, he really did, but he couldn't help thinking about his family. About Sandra and JJ. He had only gone with Sledge, only submitted because he knew fighting would put them in danger. He had agreed to come with them as long as they guaranteed his family would be safe.

Just then, he heard an eerily familiar laugh.

"I'm more like you than you want to admit." His own voice rang out. "You want them, come and find me!"

Tommy sprinted down the hall, following the echoes of his own evil laugh.


	35. Identity Battle

Out in the courtyard, the Ninja Rangers were locked in a deadly battle with Lord Draven and a swarm of kudabots. Sandy couldn't help feeling like she was more than a little out of her depth. She had already been involved in the Rangers battles with other monsters, she had even helped defeat one or two, but a monster that had already destroyed not just a planet or even a solar system but his own universe?

She concentrated her efforts on the kudabots, trying to clear a way for the others, the ones that knew what they were doing as she saw it. Brody was in the middle of a solo battle, showing no such fear about taking on the psychotic warlord. With his bow, he had extremely destructive long-range attacks, so using a wire strike to close in, he was hoping to take him down from close in using his sword, hoping that perhaps Draven relied on ranged combat. He tackled him to the ground, but as they both rolled back to their feet, Draven detached his bow in the middle, giving him to vicious looking swords.

"You'll pay for that!" Draven screamed, running for Brody, hammering into his defences with blows that shook the Red Ranger and threatened to drive him into the ground like a nail. Brody was beginning to understand how Draven had managed to destroy a whole universe by himself. He wasn't just resilient, but he was strong too, and far faster than his build would have him believe. His skills were impressive, the culmination of not just training, but no doubt millions, probably more like billions of battles.

He thought about calling for help, but he knew better than to let his opponent know he was in trouble. One benefit of the helmets was that the opponent couldn't see their face, so he couldn't see expressions of pain, or panic, or worry. Brody had learned long ago that far from being a sign of bravery, fear was just a natural reaction, the body's natural instinct to defend itself through fight or flight. Unless that fear crippled the ninja into inaction, fear was extremely useful, and spurred a natural human reaction that pushed the warrior on to far greater heights. His father had once told him that he shouldn't be worried about being scared, he should be worried when he wasn't, because a man who was genuinely fearless was careless and often just didn't appreciate the danger, he was in. Brody had been scared in virtually every fight he'd ever been in, from kudabots, through Ripcon and even Galvanax to now and so far, it had kept him alive and brought him victory. Of course, when fear was obvious it also emboldened the opponent.

He knew his team were busy clearing out the kudabots in order to give them the opportunity to bring all their power to bear at once. All he needed to do was hold out a little longer.

Flipping away from Draven, he transformed his morpher into bow mode, beginning to fire energy arrows his way. The first couple hit home, but once Draven got his bow back together and returned fire, the two began running towards the fortress, trading shots and ducking incoming fire.

He managed to get a little room from Draven, managing to stun him briefly enough to quickly assess the situation. His team-mates had finished off the first wave of kudabots and were coming his way, but he doubted they were lucky enough that Odious hadn't left more for him, or worse…that his Ranger army could be ready to go.

He made a couple of quick hand signals, telling the team to surround him. They needed to make the most of their short opportunity.

"Surprise!" Levi told him.

"You're surrounded!" Sarah added.

"Let's finish this creep!" Brody concluded, pulling out his element star. He made sure to signal to Sandy what they were doing. Finger-weaving and hand gestures had long been a part of ninjutsu, but while many of those hand gestures were either exercises to increase the strength and flexibility of the fingers or focus exercises for the mind, the ninja had not been averse to using hand signals in the field. It was a little difficult to maintain stealth while screaming instructions to comrades several feet away. He wasn't as good as it as some of the others, but he did find that after a bit of initial confusion, he was starting to get the hang of American Sign Language, and it was becoming more of a habit in battle since he now realised Sandy relied on the others to let her know what they were doing.

"Super Ninja Strike…STEEL SLASH!" They all called out together, rushing through Draven, slashing him again and again. He could do little other than stagger and try in vain to defend as they hit him with powerful blows, but as soon as he paid attention to one, one of the others got him from behind. The Rangers had been trained well to co-ordinate their attacks and draw attention so they could maximise the time an opponent's guard was elsewhere. Once he was on his knees, the all leapt into the air, coming down hard on him at once. "FINAL STRIKE!"

They found their blades stopping dead, however, and sparks started to come up. Draven had summoned some form of shield that prevented their final attack from destroying him. They all struggled as they felt their blades being forced back. That same attack had defeated more enemies than they could count, but Draven wasn't just surviving it, as he stood up slowly, he was actually pushing them back!

"Nice try Rangers!" He taunted them arrogantly as he swung his bow around, smashing them all down. "You'll NEVER beat me!"

"OK, does anyone else have a different plan?" Preston asked. "Because this one's a bit of a bust!"

"I have one." Brody said, holding up a hand signal, though giving another one to Sarah who was standing behind him. "Let's go before he comes at us again!"

With that, in a cloud of smoke, they all disappeared. Draven had to wait until the smoke cleared, but when it did, he found the Rangers nowhere in sight.

"Where did they go?" He asked himself as some more kudabots arrived. "I doubt they'll have gone far. Sweep the area! I have a feeling they're close by!"

As he left, after a moment, a piece of the background dropped, revealing itself to be a kind of curtain, replicating an area of the fortress. Brody looked to Sarah.

"OK, you heard him, he's still looking for us, but the others will have to handle it." Brody reminded her. "We need to find that third arrow and destroy it."

"Alright." She replied. "Any idea where to start?"

"I say the top of the tallest tower." He told her. She just looked at him. "What? People naturally put the most important room in a place on the top floor! Penthouse suites?"

"Well, it's as good a plan as any I guess." She replied with a shrug. "Let's go."

Back in their own reality, Mick pulled up outside the saloon in Millport. He doubted that Calvin would mind him borrowing Nitro for a bit. He was relieved to get a call from Emma telling him to pick her up, but he could tell by her voice that she was upset. When he entered the saloon, he found the locals surrounding her, trying to comfort her. She'd been given some hot chocolate and they were doing their best to reassure her she was now safe and keep her as calm as possible. When he arrived, the barmaid came over.

"Are you Mick?" She asked. He just nodded. She had spoke briefly with him on the phone, making sure she knew who was coming to pick Emma up. She stood in Mick's way defensively. Mick was grateful that she had taken responsibility for Emma's well-being, but now he had to assure her to let Emma go with her. He started looking out some of his identification.

"I'm Emma's teacher." Mick told her. "Here is my staff identification card…"

"Why would she call her teacher instead of her parents?" The barmaid asked. He just sighed.

"I…think maybe she's worried how they'll react." Mick told her. "She's a foster kid and she heard some rumours about where one of her birth parents are and…I think she might be worried if her parents found out she was looking…"

"I guess that makes a little sense." She replied. "She got a bad fright. She hitched a lift from someone and it didn't end well."

"She mentioned that." Mick replied. "I'll get her home to her folks. I really want to thank you for looking after her."

"We look after folks out here." She told him. "I couldn't turn her away when she was like this."

"Yeah, I know a few people out here. I know what kind of place it is." Mick told her. She just looked to him. "The Griffins and the Romeros…"

"Yeah, I know them. They're good families." The barmaid replied. "I just can't believe something like this could happen out here. You can be sure the locals aren't going to let this go. They're going to be looking out for this guy to make sure nothing like this happens again."

Mick just nodded, before she let him past. He approached Emma slowly, making sure she could see him.

"Emma?" He asked her. "Are you…WHOA!"

He was a little taken aback as she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him desperately. He just looked to the others as he returned the gesture.

"It's alright, It's fine now." He assured her. "Come on, let's get you back home."

She just nodded wordlessly, before following Mick out to Nitro. The residents of the town followed Mick and Emma out, and he could see them keeping a careful eye on them as they got in. He was sure he even noticed one or two of them taking careful note of the vehicle and one of them taking down the registration number. He could understand their caution, and appreciated that they just wanted to be sure Emma would be safe.

"Seatbelt." He reminded her, buckling up, before starting the engine and starting the drive back to Emma's house.

Back in the Anti-Verse, Tommy made his way through the fortress, following evil laughter in his own voice. Occasionally he would break out his "evil Green Ranger laugh" around his former comrades for a few laughs at parties, or to get a reaction. Kira still got creeped out whenever he did it whenever he met up with her whenever she was in town. However, hearing it now was far from a joke.

"You're getting warm now Tommy." His own voice echoed as he started climbing some stairs. "Warmer…ooh, you're red hot now!"

Tommy got to the top of the stairs, finding a large, heavy, studded wooden door barring his path. He opened it, finding himself coming out onto the ramparts. When he got there, he found his wife Sandra and his son JJ tied by their hands, dangling over the edge. They were both screaming for him, but he knew it wouldn't be this easy. Looking around, he found his doppelganger standing a little way from him, by the frame that was holding up his family.

"Tommy, so glad you could join us!" He said with an evil smirk that chilled Tommy to his core.

"Man, no wonder Kim still gets the creeps whenever I do that impression." He remarked as he looked to his evil robotic counterpart. He cast his glance side-ways at his family, but the robot just whistled.

"Don't even think about it." He warned him, pulling out a knife and holding it to the rope. "You won't reach them in time."

"So, what is it you want?" Tommy asked him.

"What do you think I want? I want what I was programmed to do. To replace you! The Ranger Legend, Tommy Oliver!" He explained. "Who better to destroy Tommy Oliver than me?"

"Trust me, better than you have tried." Tommy told him. "But if it's a fight you want, that's just fine with me. Release them and I'll send you to the scrap heap."

"Oh, I don't think so." The robot replied, before producing a green candle. He laughed, holding it up. "I took enough from your memories to make a replica. It's not like the real one, but…it'll serve the purpose I intend it for."

"You think that can drain my powers?" Tommy asked him sceptically. The robot shook his head.

"Not exactly." He replied. "But…it might just properly motivate you."

With that, he set it up under the rope and lit it.

"I figure it should take about two minutes for it to burn through that rope." Robo-Tommy told him, before morphing into his Black Dino Thunder mode. "The only way you get to that candle is through me!"

"Fine." Tommy replied, before pulling out his own morpher. "But unless you have a Master Morpher? You ain't nothing but a cheap copy!"

With that, Tommy loaded the first power coin into it, adopting the Black Dino Thunder powers once more.

Elsewhere in the fortress, Wes was leading the others through the factory, destroying kudabots as they went. They finally got down to the main factory floor, looking down from the balcony as a fleet of their latest robot Rangers marched out the doors. They saw more "blanks" being prepared to be downloaded with their powers.

"Oh my gosh, there must have been almost a hundred in that last run alone!" Katherine gasped. "There's no telling how many Draven's already made!"

"You know, I thought I'd be a lot happier at the thought of there being dozens of Gias out there." Cat said, putting a hand on Gia's shoulder. The Yellow Corsair Ranger just looked towards her.

"Hey, there's only one of me!" She replied. "And you have the original and best."

"If that's one production run, Draven has to have made hundreds already." Gemma surmised. "Maybe more!"

"Then I say we make sure he doesn't make any more." Trent replied. "You guys know what time it is right?"

"BOOM TIME!" Gemma called out. They all turned to stare at her. "Um…yeah, I'm…I'm working on that."

"You know, that works for me." Antonio replied. With that, they leapt over the guard rail, morphing as they went.

Back in the Rangers' dimension, Mick pulled up outside Emma's house. He applied the parking brake and shut off the engine before looking to Emma.

"Well, we're here." Mick told her. She had been pretty quiet the whole trip, which didn't really surprise him. He had hoped that she would at least talk a little bit about what had happened, but he didn't want to push it. "I'll see you inside."

"Can you…um…" Emma started to say, before tailing off. "Would you mind not telling my parents what happened?"

"You want me to lie to your parents?" Mick asked her.

"Mom and dad would freak if they knew what happened." She told him. "I don't think I'd be allowed out of the house again if they knew about…well…you know…"

"Don't you think they have a right to be worried?" Mick asked her. She just nodded.

"It's just that, they've been so great to me." Emma told him. "I mean, they're more than just a foster home, they're like…they're my family."

"Then why do you want to lie to them?" Mick asked her. She just sighed.

"I'm just worried about what they'll think when they know I've been…looking for dad." Emma told him. She wiped off her nose on her sleeve. "When mom died, I didn't know what was going to happen to me. You hear all these stories about the foster care system, about kids that get passed from one home to the other until eventually they turn 18 and when no one needs to look after them they get turned out but mom and dad…they've always been there. I can't believe how lucky I was getting placed with them. I just worry that if they find out I've been trying to find dad, they'll be hurt. That they'll think I don't want them anymore."

She rubbed her eyes, before looking to Mick.

"You wouldn't understand." She told him. Mick put a hand on her shoulder as she was about to get out of the truck.

"I think I'll understand a lot more than you know." He told her. "Look, what I'm about to tell you can't leave the truck, you understand? It's between you, me and Nitro, and Nitro isn't that talkative."

She just nodded as curiosity took over her. Mick took a deep breath.

"Brody was just a kid when he came onto the Warrior Dome. None of Galvanax's goons cared about him much. Ripcon quite literally dumped him in the slave quarters right in the General Population. I took pity on him; I knew he wouldn't last long if he was just left there." He started to relay his tale. "He was a great kid. I used to be impressed how much faith he had that he would get out of the ship. I'd pretty much given up years before, but Brody…there was nothing that convinced him he wouldn't one day figure out how to escape. I watched him grow up. I saw the good times, and the bad. I was there to teach him all about things as he grew up. I was there when he came running to me all excited when he figured out how to do a new move or found a way into a new part of the ship, he hadn't been able to get into before. When we escaped and he started making friends, getting to be among the people he was meant to be with, I was just so proud of him."

He then breathed a sigh.

"Then, during the battle with Galvanax, Dane reappeared." Mick told her. "And, if I'm honest, while I saw how happy Brody and Levi were to have him back, there was a part of me that felt a little left out. Sure, Brody always knew I was there and he told me I was always going to be part of things, but…I have to admit, even though I knew how happy it made them, there was a part of me that almost wished he hadn't come back at all."

"You did?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He admitted. "But, over time, when I realised that it really wasn't about me and that if I wanted what was best for them, I needed to let them make those kinds of decisions that I learned to just…let go."

"Let go?" She asked him.

"The one thing no one tells anyone about being a parent, even those that fall into it by accident like me, is that when all is said and done, the sad fact is you're only there to guide your kids into being adults. Into being able to make those lives for themselves." He explained. "And you just have to hope that when that day comes, you'll be a part of that life. I'll always be a parent to Brody, even if he doesn't really need it anymore. But I like to think he has enough room in his heart for me."

"Mick?" She asked as he started to get out. "For what it's worth, I've seen how Brody is with you and…I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Just like I'm sure your parents won't have anything to worry about with you." Mick answered. "No matter what you decide to do about Dane. But from someone who's been there, I can assure you, they'll appreciate being a part of the process. I'm sure they know it's natural you'd want to know where you came from. They're more interested in where you're going."

"I…I wouldn't know where to begin." She stammered.

"I always find the truth is a good place to start." Mick answered her, before pausing for a moment. "Just uh…not in TOO much detail if you catch my drift."

"Don't worry, I think I can keep them focused on my part of everything." She answered.

With that, they got out of the truck, and began making the way towards the house.


	36. Some Powers Mastered Some Not

Tommy and his robotic clone clashed on the ramparts of Draven's fortress, their Brachio Staffs blurring through the air as they struggled for dominance.

Tommy had faced a lot of opponents. He couldn't even say this was the first time he'd faced "himself". More than one of the sick psychopaths that had fought him over the years had thrown clones or look-alikes at him, but so far, he had always prevailed. That said, he had to give it to Draven, his robotic clone was one of the toughest he'd ever faced.

While the others had been strapped into machines now for weeks, even months in some cases, in order to copy their memories, moves and powers, Tommy had received special treatment. He had been tortured, interrogated and through more lab works than he knew were possible for any living being to survive. Draven wanted Rangers to create his army, but in particular he wanted Tommy, and he wanted him for one reason and one reason only. He was the Legendary Ranger.

No one had carried more Ranger Powers than Tommy had. In his lifetime he had accumulated five different sets of powers. It was a running joke among his friends that he kept coming back, and that he always seemed to get a different colour into the bargain. Jason had started a book after his Reefside tenure for anyone that met him to place bets on when he'd become a Pink Ranger. Tommy had such an affinity with the Morphing Grid now that he had even started to look for and find ways to bring back his powers. However, the last few years had brought with them a brand-new obsession.

When The Armada invaded Earth they had almost completely taken over. In the final battle, he'd managed to bring back all his old powers, but he had shared them out to others in order to give the Ranger Army as much chance as possible. Anton still talked fondly about his one and only time serving as Dino Thunder Black. However, it was seeing that there were still threats out in the universe that eclipsed what he had already seen that inspired him to find a way to increase their arsenal. Wanting to be ready in case there was ever a threat like that again, he turned his research to trying to combine Ranger powers.

The Master Morpher was the latest evolution of his work. While his ultimate goal was to fuse the powers, to create one Ranger of immense power as a weapon of last resort, so far what he had managed to do was fuse all five of his previous modes into the one morpher, though he was still looking for a way to combine the powers into one mode.

"DAD!" He heard JJ call out as there was a crack and he and his mother dropped a couple of millimetres.

"JJ!" Tommy screamed as he looked their way. His clone had manufactured a cruel way to force the battle he sought. JJ and his mother were both dangling over the edge of the fortress, above a drop to certain doom. He'd even fashioned a copy of the Green Candle to slowly burn away at the rope, giving him a time limit for the battle. He darted towards them, but was knocked away with a quick flurry from a Brachi Staff.

"ENERGY ORB!" His clone called out, casting it towards him, blasting him back into a wall. Tommy's head collided with the concrete, smashing his helmet open. He managed to get up to his knees, shaking free the cobwebs as he tried to shake off the force of the attack. His clone started to laugh, taunting him.

"You haven't been Dino Thunder Black in over a decade! You're old!" He reminded him. "While I'm a robot. I never age, I never get sick, I never get tired. I'm timeless, and you're growing weaker by the day."

Tommy knew it was only words, but he couldn't help feeling like he had a point. There was a reason new Rangers kept turning up. While the powers of the Rangers did keep them strong, they were mortal, and they did age. 42 wasn't exactly "old" so to speak, but he would be lying if he said he was still able to work out as hard as he did when he first got the Green Ranger powers at 17. He wasn't the oldest Ranger, not by a long shot, but even at his most optimistic he couldn't deny getting older.

"I may get older, but there are still a lot of things I can do that you can't!" Tommy declared, reaching for his morpher. "Zeo Ranger 5! RED!"

The one thing he'd managed to do with his Master Morpher was combine the powers into one morpher. So far, he could still only use one set at a time, but he could cycle between them, and while they were dormant, they recharged from the Morphing Grid. He could already feel the Dino Thunder Powers had been drained, and with a switch of form, he got a rush of energy that brought him right back to the fore. His Zeo Sabre appeared in his hand as he rushed back to the attack.

Out in the grounds of the fortress, Draven was searching for the Ninja Rangers. Even with Sledge and Odious abandoning him, he had them running scared. He was starting to wonder why they spoke of the difficulty they had with the Rangers. He did admit that it had been a long time since he'd had a fight this competitive, but even still, he was eager to see it finished.

From his position in hiding, Levi prepared to strike.

"Alright, let's buy Brody and Sarah some time." He said, making a quick hand signal to Sandy. He dropped his cover, emerging from nowhere and slapping a Power Star into his Rockstorm Blaster.

"Lightning, STRIKE!" He called out, peppering him with powerful blasts. Draven weathered the first few, before he cast up a field to protect himself. "Alright guys, hit him with everything!"

They all burst forth from cover, engaging in hit and run attacks while he was trying to defend himself from Levi. He swung this way and that as they darted past, hacking at him.

"That's it! Keep him guessing! Keep him off-balance!" Preston yelled.

"Don't let him figure out where to look!" Hayley added, hitting him with her Power Claw.

"Guys, does anyone else get the feeling we're pissing him off more than actually hurting him?" Calvin asked.

Levi couldn't help but agree with that assessment. They were chipping away at him, unable to get a decisive blow. However, right now all they were doing was buying time. He just hoped that the price wasn't their lives.

In another part of the fortress, Brody and Sarah were searching for the last Mega Arrow. They didn't like the idea of leaving their friends to face Draven alone, but they knew their first priority was to stop him from being able to invade their dimension. At the worst, they knew there were others in their world that would be able to take up the fight if they didn't return, but if Draven broke through, there was no telling how much damage his Ranger Army could do, how much blood would be spilled by the time the last sword was sheathed. If they destroyed the last Mega Arrow here, then his plans would be over before they began. They could limit the fight to a world where there were already no more casualties to be had.

"Alright, I think this is the last room." Brody commented. They ran into the last room, finding a treasure room, filled with all sorts of exotic treasure and valuables, no doubt the spoils of Draven's campaigns, but they also found numerous guards lying in ruins.

"What the…?" Brody asked, before Sarah pointed up ahead.

There, rummaging through numerous treasures, was Odious, still injured and weakened from their battle with Foxatron. She had already seen the odds tipping a little further from her favour than she'd like, and she'd opted to cut Draven loose. She'd already disposed of his communicator before the Rangers stormed the fortress. She let out a cackle of delight as she found the right chest, throwing the top aside carelessly and snatching out the Mega Arrow.

"Ah, there you are!" She said as she looked to it. "Now, it's time to…"

Brody cleared his throat, causing her to stop in her speech and turn around. She saw him with his sword across his shoulders and Sarah in a guard.

"Oh, please, don't let us interrupt, do go on!" Brody beckoned her. She just growled in frustration, before throwing out an energy blast. They both dived aside as the blast tore through the room, sending valuables flying in all directions.

"You Rangers are really testing my patience!" She screamed.

"Yeah, we're kind of annoying like that." Sarah called back as she ran for Odious, swinging her sword. Odious wielded her mallet and the Mega Arrow, blocking her attacks and lashing back where she could, before kicking Sarah away. Brody launched into her, his blade glowing brightly as he attempted a Steel Slash, only to be blocked, driving her back with the force of the blast.

"You're NOT giving that Arrow to Draven!" Brody declared, before nodding to Sarah. They both clipped Power Stars into their blasters, aiming them right at her. Odious just started laughing.

"Give it to him?" She asked derisively. "Do you really not see that I…?"

Unfortunately, before she could get to explain that she was there to destroy the arrow and leave Draven trapped to face his fate at their hands, they opened fire. It would suit Odious down to the ground to let the Rangers and Draven kill each other. The only thing better than destroying an enemy was engineering it so they could be destroyed without any loss of resources on her part. The blasts hit the Mega Arrow, at which the combined energies ripped through the room, sending everyone to the ground. Brody and Sarah de-morphed, while Odious hit the ground, smoking, her robes burnt and in ruins. They all started coughing and spluttering.

"Not…our best plan it…it has to be said." Brody spluttered.

"Agreed." Sarah answered as she sat up, nursing her head. "Whoa, it'd be nice if the room would stop spinning for a few minutes."

"Sarah, look!" Brody said, pointing over to where Odious was lying, barely alive on the floor. He struggled to his feet, picking up his sword and starting to make his way over. He looked down on her, thinking of all the carnage she had caused, knowing that now was his best opportunity to end it. Gripping the handle tightly in both hands, he raised it up over his head. Odious just laughed.

"Thank you for destroying that for me." She told him, lifting her mallet with the last of her strength. "But…another day."

With that, she cast a spell and disappeared, right as Brody brought the point down with a savage cry, the steel clanging into the stone as she disappeared just in the nick of time. Sarah came up behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Like she said, another day." Sarah told him. "Come on, let's go. Our friends need us."

With that, they both ran out of the room, morphing as they went.

Back on the ramparts, Robo-Tommy spun away as Tommy, getting some room as their battle hit another standstill. Tommy heard another crack and a scream informed him that the rope holding his family was weakening ever further.

"Your Zeo Power will never defeat me!" Robo-Tommy taunted him.

"Tommy, I really don't mean to criticize, but will you hurry up and finish this guy?" She screamed. "Oh, and if you'd stop us falling to our death, that would be REALLY appreciated!"

"I'm working on it honey!" Tommy declared as he ran towards his robotic clone, kicking him in the chest as he back-flipped away, alternating into his White Ranger mode. The power boost gave him the edge he needed to knock Robo-Tommy's Brachio Staff from his hand. He slashed into him, sensing the end was near, but before he could deliver the last blow, he heard another crack. He looked to the rope, seeing it was about to break. He threw Saba, pinning the rope to the wall just as it snapped.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but it gave Robo-Tommy the opportunity to snatch up the Brachio Staff, causing a telling blow. He could feel the energy leaving him as Robo-Tommy started to power up his Brachio Staff. He went for the Master Morpher one more time.

"Go ahead, do it!" Robo-Tommy dared him. "Of course, if you do that, if you change powers…Saba disappears too, and if that happens…"

He made a little whistling sound, followed by a splatting sound. Tommy looked to Saba. It was true, it was tied to the White Ranger powers. If he changed powers, it would disappear and his family would fall. But he also knew he didn't have enough power left to take one more hit.

"Time to make up your mind, your life…or theirs." Robo-Tommy taunted him. Tommy would gladly give his life, and he couldn't bring himself to be the reason they perished. No matter what he did, he couldn't be the one to drop them. Of course, if he took the hit, there was no guarantee Robo-Tommy wouldn't kill them anyway. He had no reason to keep them around. As Robo-Tommy cast forward a blast, he dived aside, rolling towards the rope.

"DRAGONZORD!" Tommy called out, switching powers as he went. Just as predicted, Saba disappeared, and the rope released, but Tommy managed to catch it just as his transformation completed. He turned to face Robo-Tommy, who just started laughing.

"Nice try." He replied. "But now, now you're stuck. One hand literally tied. And I have no problem dropping your family."

He started top power up another Energy Orb.

"Still, look on the bright side. At least this way, you'll all still be together." He cackled. "Energy Orb, Fire Strike!"

He cast forth the Energy Orb, just as Tommy whipped out his Dragon Dagger. Lifting it to his face, he started playing, powering up the Dragon Shield. Robo-Tommy focused all his power on him as Tommy started marching towards him, holding the rope clear and pulling the rope up on the pulley, flames engulfing him, sapping at his strength as he went. He only stopped powering up the shield as he managed to break through the other side of the orb, arriving right before his enemy. He powered up the Dragon Dagger, ramming it straight into his chest. Robo Tommy de-morphed, letting Tommy stare straight into his own face as he looked down to the Dragon Dagger.

"You were good, but having my face, my moves, even my power doesn't make you me." He stated, recalling his helmet before yanking the dagger up and twisting it. "It takes heart to be a Ranger…something you'll never have!"

With that, he head-butted him, sending him staggering backwards, where he tripped over the battlements. Robo-Tommy fell to the ground, exploding as he landed. Tommy just fell to his knees, blinking as he clung desperately to the rope.

"Yeah, head-butt a robot Tommy, real smart!" He commented. Just then, Wes showed up with the others. He grabbed the rope, taking the strain from Tommy, while Gia and TJ helped Sandra and JJ back onto safe ground.

"We finished destroying the factory." Wes explained. "We heard the battle and came as fast as we could."

"It's appreciated." Tommy assured them.

"Draven's army is still out there." Gia reminded them. "He might not be able to make any more Ranger Robots, but we can't let him keep the ones he's already got!"

"Oh, I'm totally on board with that." Tommy agreed. "Trust me, I am SO over rip-off copies!"

Elsewhere, Draven had finally managed to start to turn the tables on the Rangers. While they had been mounting an effective harrying offence, he was managing to keep himself on-balance, and just when they thought they had a good rhythm, he finally managed to rally back, hitting Preston with a hard hit that put him straight through a wall.

The distraction to focus as they realised, he'd been hit was all he needed to finally break their momentum. Draven's strength was matched only by his brutality as he took the Rangers to task. Levi had to take a breather, getting himself into cover.

"Brody, we could REALLY use some help here!" Levi beckoned him.

"We're coming as fast as we can." He assured him. "This place is like a maze…and we're kind of a little beat up."

"YOU'RE beat up!" Levi asked in response as a huge piece of debris narrowly missed him. "I'm amazed Preston is still breathing after that last shot he took!"

"Damn, I'm sure we've been down this corridor before." Brody stated. "Look, we'll be there when we can!"

"Alright." Levi answered. "I just hope we're still here too!"

He broke cover and ran, in time to see Draven hacking down Hayley, who de-morphed as she fell. Calvin, Preston and Hayley were now all unmorphed on the ground. He swung his Rockstorm Blaster, hoping to give them some time to recover and get back into the fight.

"That had a little sting to it!" Draven chuckled as Levi hit him. "Good, good, better…and THAT'S ENOUGH!"

He smashed the Rockstorm Blaster from Levi's grip, sending it spinning from his hand, before seizing him around the throat and lifting him off the ground with one hand. He slammed him to the floor a couple of times, shattering stone with each blow. Levi's suit finally gave up the ghost as he lifted him up and held him aloft.

"Well, I have to give you credit, you Rangers have been quite the workout." He said, sounding impressed. "It's been a long time since I had a battle this taxing. But I'm afraid that now comes the part where I have to squeeze the life out of…"

Sandy leapt in, hitting his wrist with her sword as hard as she possibly could. She swung her sword, smashing it into him a couple of times, but he just snatched it from her, before pie-facing her to the ground. He laughed at her as she started to crawl away.

"Is this really the last hope for your friends? You?" He asked her. She continued to scramble away, only for him to kick her in the ribs, sending her flying into a wall. She looked up to him as he came for her, pulling out her blaster. He just slapped it away, laughing at her. "Well, congratulations, you've convinced me to change the order I'm going to destroy you in!"

He grabbed her and picked her up, but as he did, he felt a surge of power. Green lightning started to arc around her.

"What are you doing?" He asked her.

"ME?" She asked. Before she knew what was happening, the lightning grew more intense until it surged through Draven, blasting him back all the way to the other side of the courtyard. He looked up to her in alarm as he scrambled to his feet.

"What…what the hell are you?" He asked, before beginning to run, looking for his army for reinforcements. Brody and Sarah came out of the fortress and they all surrounded Sandy as she stared at her hands.

"Sandy?" Preston asked. "Sandy, are you alright?" She just nodded.

"I…I guess." She answered.

"How…how did you do…whatever the hell that was?" Sarah asked her. Sandy just shook her head.

"I wish to hell I knew!" She answered honestly.

"We…uh…can figure it out later." Calvin said. "In the meantime, I say we try and find Draven before he comes back with a LOT of friends!"

"I can go with that." Preston replied, looking to Sandy with an impressed smile. It felt good to see him looking at her that way. She just wished she had any clue how it had happened. The Rangers all set off after Draven, morphing as they went.


	37. Draven's Last Battle

Sledge's ship burst through the dimensional barrier, coming back into the Ranger's universe. Poisandra started dancing around giddily as they arrived back in their own dimension.

"I'm so glad you decided to stop working for that awful Draven." She stated. "That Anti-verse is so depressing. There's nothing left worth destroying."

"His contract was lucrative, but there comes a time to seek other opportunities." Sledge replied sagely. "Of course, now we have this inter-dimensional jump drive, we don't even have to limit ourselves to this dimension anymore! There are infinite universes of contracts to pitch for!"

"Oh, Sledgeums that's just you all over! Work, work, work, work, work!" She whined, stomping her foot with a pout.

"But Poisandra, my sweet…"

"I don't want to hear it! I had to wait 65,000,000 years for you to marry me!" And you STILL owe me a honeymoon!" She screeched.

"But we weren't working for…"

"Yes, we had that year off…after the Rangers DESTROYED US and it took a year for Wrench to resurrect us! Being dead DOESN'T count!" She interrupted him. "I want a real honeymoon! A nice vacation somewhere nice with lots of pretty things to destroy!"

"Well, I suppose I could take a little break." Sledge replied, settling back into his chair. "I do have plenty of bullion to spend thanks to Draven."

"Ooh, yay!" She declared happily. "Now, let's look at the navigation computer and see where's nice at this time of…"

Just then, alarms started blaring. Poisandra and Curio started to look around in confusion.

"What? What's happening?" She asked. Sledge pulled up his scanners, trying to find the source of the alarm, but before he could, the whole ship shook as a massive blast came across the bow.

"WHAT?" He roared. "Who dares…?"

Just then, there was a flash of light, and a figure appeared in the cockpit. He was wearing red armour, and was carrying a katana. He looked to Sledge and Poisandra.

"That was a warning shot! Come quietly or there will be trouble!" He declared. Sledge and Poisandra just stared at him.

"Um…and you are…?" Poisandra asked.

"Space Sheriff Skyfire!" He introduced himself. "You are wanted for homicide, kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment, torture, assault, destruction of property and your ship is giving off more than the accepted level of emissions!"

Poisandra and Sledge just looked at each other before bursting out laughing.

"Space Sheriff? Is that even a thing?" Poisandra asked Sledge.

"Viviks! Get him off my ship!" Sledge instructed them. A few viviks approached him, but as soon as they laid their hands on him, almost faster than they could follow, Skyfire's blade flashed around in a blur, before all the viviks melted into a puddle on the floor.

"You can add assaulting an officer of the law to your charge sheet!" He declared. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law! You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed to you! Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"

Sledge powered up his blaster and aimed it at Skyfire.

"Do you have a permit for that blaster?" Skyfire asked.

"I'm a bounty hunter!" He sneered, completely ignoring Skyfire's question. "What's the difference between what I do and what you do?"

"You hunt for money." Skyfire declared, adopting a guard. "I only hunt for justice!"

Back in the Anti-Verse, Lord Draven stumbled away, heading for a clearing where his forces had assembled. He had underestimated the Rangers, a mistake that had almost cost him dearly, but he hadn't conquered the whole of his own universe by accepting defeat.

He looked to his army, assembled before him. Massive formations of evil Ranger Robots, assembled ready for an invasion he relished the thought of even more now that he had been humiliated by the Green Rangers.

"Arise my army!" He declared as he looked to them. All of the Ranger Robots stood to attention, awaiting instruction. He was emboldened by their presence. He turned around just as the Ninja Steel Rangers arrived. They skidded to a halt as they saw the enormity of the force before them.

"Whoa!" Levi commented. "That is a whole lot of Rangers!"

"I don't know about you, but I think I prefer it when Rangers we meet are on our side." Preston commented.

"Then your day's about to look up!" A voice declared. They turned around to see the Returning Rangers marching towards them. The Mighty Morphin' Green Ranger, Time Force Red, Zeo Pink, Megaforce and Super Megaforce Yellow, Dino Thunder White, Samurai Gold, Ranger Operator Series Silver, Ranger Operator Series Gold, Dino Charge Blue, The Blue Space Ranger and Mighty Morphin' Red all strode purposefully towards them. The Ninja Steel Rangers were elated to see their predecessors free, and ready to do battle once more.

"Boy, are we glad to see you guys!" Brody stated. "We're still more than a little outnumbered but…uh…not by as much now I guess."

"You've all done well, we owe you a lot for getting us free." Tommy told him. "Now's the time for us to repay the favour."

"Hey, Draven!" Rocky called out. "You ever heard of unfair use of image? There's only one of me, and now I'm planning to make sure it stays that way!"

"Your factory's gone!" Trent told him. "And pretty soon, the rest of these copy-cats will be too!"

"Last chance if you want to just call it quits!" Antonio offered.

"And face the most glorious battle imaginable?" Draven asked in response. "NEVER!"

As Draven and his army charged, Cat just sighed.

"Why do the bad guys never take you up on the offer of the easy way out?" She asked, before with an almighty battle cry, they charged out to meet the army of Ranger clones.

Back in the Rangers' dimension, Madame Odious teleported back onto the Warrior Dome, landing on a heap on the floor. Badonna was quickly by her side.

"Madame Odious, are you alright?" She squealed. "Medic! I want a medic here right now!"

"Get…me…to…my…throne…room." Odious croaked. Her breathing was ragged and weak, her body sapped of almost all its strength. The blast had taken almost all she had left. Badonna bent down, positioning herself to help Odious to her feet.

"What happened my mistress?" She asked her. "Did Lord Draven do this?"

"No, it was not his doing, but he will not be a concern much longer." She told her. "Now I've got him right where I want him. Right now, he and the Rangers are beating each other into oblivion and I'm more than happy to let them!"

"But his army…"

"It doesn't matter any longer. He is taken care of." Odious assured her as they arrived in her throne room. Badonna helped her to her throne, easing her down into it. "It may have cost me, but it is a price well worth paying to rid myself of him for good."

"Mistress, you are injured, let me get the surgeon…"

"There will be plenty of time for that. For now,…just let me rest." She told her. Badonna nodded in understanding.

"Of course, my mistress. Anything for you." She told her, turning down the lights.

"I will call for you when I am ready." Odious told her.

"Of course." Badonna responded. "Goodbye, my mistress."

With that, she left the room, closing the door behind her. Odious closed her eyes and settled back into the throne. Her power had taken a huge hit. Between her battle with the Rangers in Foxatron and the explosion, her injuries were extensive, and she had almost exhausted her magic between teleporting herself back and surviving the blast.

She was down now, but soon she would recover. The surgeons would repair her body, but her power would return after some rest. In the meantime, she could only think about how perfectly she had played it.

Right now, the Rangers and Draven were no doubt killing each other on some God-forsaken wasteland that wasn't even in this universe! She didn't know yet how the battle would go, but if the Rangers won, she imagined they would return soon. Humans were so sentimental about their homes that they wouldn't stay away too long. If not, she could always return to collect their Power Stars from what was left of them.

She settled down, and started to let exhaustion claim her. Badonna could keep things running until she was back on her feet. Cosmo would no doubt just keep being distracted by his silly little show. She would let him keep running it for now. It was a useful source of warriors, and so long as he didn't cause her any problems, she was happy enough to let him be. No, as she drifted off, she could only think that everything was all coming to fruition. She just let exhaustion claim her and drifted off into dreams.

In the Anti-Verse, the battle was well underway. The Rangers, past and present, carved their way through Draven's forces

"Hey, do you have to be quite so enthusiastic about destroying me?" Rocky chuckled as he watched Katherine kicking one of his clones heads off.

"What can I say? Twenty years holding onto some frustrations is a pretty strong motivator!" She answered.

"Wait, what frustrations?" He asked as he cut down a few clones. "Kat…Kat?"

"Oh, let it go, she's just messing with you!" TJ assured him. "Kat never held a grudge in her life!"

"Somehow I doubt that." Gia chipped in as she and Kat stood back-to-back, blasting down some more. "Even the closest teams have some conflicts. You don't want to know how tense things got on the Red Galleon!"

"Guys, I think I see a way clear." Tommy announced, charging towards Draven. He powered up the Dragon Shield with his flute, allowing him to run through the Energy Arrows as he closed in, before a powerful slash shattered his bow. Draven could only look down on his ruined weapon in horror.

Draven swept the Dragon Dagger from his hand, before hitting Tommy with a huge punch, so powerful it forced him to switch out to another form. He chose Zeo Red, planting his Zeo Sabre in the ground, allowing him to get to his knees.

"Boost!" Brody declared as he ran up, springing from Tommy's shoulder, slamming the Lion Fire Armour disk into his sword as he went. By the time he landed, he hit Draven hard enough to send him flying through scores of his own troops, destroying them as he went. The team assembled behind him, while the remainder of Draven's forces formed up to protect him while he tried to recover.

"Alright, it's time we finished this for good!" Brody declared. "Lion Fire Armour, Final STRIKE!"

"RANGER BLITZ!" The others all chorused, forming up into the wake of his energy wave. Linking their powers into one almighty bulldozer, all eighteen Rangers darted across the field, straight through the remaining Ranger droids, before surging through Draven. One by one, they slashed into him, before Brody brought down his burning blade, cleaving him in two. Draven smiled as he felt the last of his power leaving him.

"That, was my greatest battle yet!" He declared, before falling to the ground and exploding. Brody and the other Rangers all turned to view the spot where Draven fell.

"Show's over…Rangers Win!" Brody declared. "Now that, THAT was epic!"

"Uh…I get a feeling it might be a little early to celebrate just yet." TJ said as the felt the earth starting to shake. They saw massive faults opening up all around them. "I don't think this planet was meant to take this much abuse!"

"Gemma, I think it's time you called our ride!" Wes told her.

"All aboard!" She called out as the Paeleomax Mega Train rolled through, stopping before them. Sandra and JJ were already waiting inside. Everyone piled on board as quickly as possible as the train rocked back and forth.

"Come on, we need to get out of here!" Tommy called out as he waved the last few passengers on board. "Alright, is that everyone?"

"All aboard that's coming aboard!" Gia confirmed with a quick head count. "Gemma, let's get us the hell out of here!"

Gemma started up the train, getting it up to speed. It disappeared in a blinding flash, leaving Draven's homeworld to crumble and fall apart, becoming nothing more than debris drifting in space.

Back in the Rangers' dimension, Sheriff Skyfire returned to his ship, appearing in a flash of light.

"I don't suppose they came quietly?" His ship's computer asked.

"Do they ever?" He asked in response as Sledge's ship exploded. "That's two more off the list."

"Of course, how silly of me. I just thought it might be a novel change of pace for one of the fugitives to make it to trial." The computer responded sarcastically. "Preliminary scans show you are suffering from numerous cuts and contusions, and have no less than thirty-seven fractures. I would recommend immediate medical…"

"Where's the next fugitive?" Skyfire asked.

"Sheriff Skyfire, I'm afraid I must insist…"

"There will be time for medical treatment on the way!" Skyfire replied. "Next fugitive!"

"There are currently no…"

"Don't lie to me!" Skyfire interrupted it. The computer pulled up a file.

"Wanted for arms dealing, extortion, mail fraud and improper use of aerosol deodorant." The computer told him. Skyfire just sighed.

"There's always another fugitive." He responded. "Lock in a pursuit course…and begin medical program."

"As you wish." The computer responded, at which his ship jumped to hyper speed in pursuit of his latest fugitive.

The Paeleomax Mega Train burst through the dimensional barrier, bringing the Rangers back home. They all disembarked, glad to be back. As soon as they were out, Calvin de-morphed and started kissing the ground.

"Oh, Summer Cove, I will never complain about your droughts or your earthquakes or your traffic ever again!" He declared. The rest of them all started de-morphing too.

"Well, I guess we can scratch visiting another dimension off the bucket-list." Brody said. "That was EPIC!"

"Hey, you should try going to the moon!" TJ said as he de-morphed.

"Yeah, I'm still pissed you guys left me behind!" Rocky complained as he returned to his civilian form. "I mean, I was moving but that's no reason to leave me out of the coolest mission ever."

"Hey, if you left a forwarding address, we'd have invited you." TJ told him.

"I can't wait to get back home and tell the others about this!" Gem said excitedly. "You guys are the best!"

"Always like working with you." Koda agreed.

"I couldn't agree more. You guys did an amazing job out there." Tommy declared. "If it wasn't for you, my family and I might not be standing here today. I think it's safe to say, with you on the case, the world is in safe hands."

With that, Tommy de-morphed and offered a hand to the others. The Ninja Steel Rangers all stared at him dumbfounded for a moment, before Brody took a swing at him. Tommy jumped back, only narrowly avoiding being hit, while the Ninja Steel team and Koda all formed up defensively. The Returning Rangers all formed up behind Tommy.

"Hey!" Gia called out. "What the hell?"

"We could ask the same thing!" Brody replied. "Do you think we forgot about Zandar?"

"Zandar?" Tommy asked in confusion. Koda just growled.

"You kill Phillip's Father!" He barked at him angrily.

"OK, slow your roll here, I think we're all missing something!" Wes said, trying to ease the situation. "What exactly is it you think happened?"

"I think what's happened is you're all on the wrong side!" Sarah snapped. "You think covering up those black veins and a stupid haircut are going to fool us? We'd recognise that face anywhere!"

"Black veins?" Tommy asked. "Haircut?"

He looked to the others, who all exchanged a few glances that just screamed 'oh shit'. He turned back to the Ninja Steel team.

"OK, there's been a huge misunderstanding here." Tommy stated.

"Bullshit Lord Drakkon!" Preston spat angrily. Now the entire contingent of Returning Rangers really looked like they were panicking. The expression "seen a ghost" didn't cover the way they all seemed to age years at the very mention of that name.

"How…how do you guys know about Lord Drakkon?" Wes asked them. "He was destroyed."

"Well, I've got a newsflash for you, he wasn't." Brody told them, pointing right at Tommy. "He's standing right there."

"Guys, I can understand your confusion, really I can." Tommy told them, pulling out his Master Morpher. The Ninja Steel Rangers all went for their morphers, but before any of them morphed, Tommy offered it up, offering to hand it over.

"Tommy, what are you doing?" Gia asked.

"It's the only way I can convince them to hear me out." Tommy explained.

"Hey, if they want to make this an issue…"

"I appreciate the support Rocky, but…we're all Rangers here, and the first stage in earning trust is showing a little." Tommy said, tossing the Master Morpher to Brody, before holding his hands up in surrender.

"You're giving up your morpher?" Brody asked him. Tommy just nodded.

"Now I'm unarmed." Tommy began, looking to each of them in turn. "All I ask is that you hear me out, if you're not too proud. Believe me, if Lord Drakkon really is back, then no one wants to know about it more than I do."

Brody and the others looked around themselves. They all remembered with pointed detail the last time they had faced Drakkon in Zandar. There was no denying that Tommy looked exactly like him, but seeing the other Rangers taking his side, they were torn. Was it possible that ALL of them were being taken in by an act? Not wanting to get involved in a civil war, Brody sighed and looked to him.

"Fine, but in the morning. I think we've all had enough fighting for one day." Brody told him.

"I couldn't agree more." Tommy answered, handing him a card with his number on it. "Hold onto the morpher for now. Call me when you're ready to talk."

Back on Odious' ship, she was lost in wonderful dreams, imagining herself ruling the universe. She didn't have any interest in being a benevolent leader, there were untold riches and powers in the universe for her to claim for her own. Of course, if she knew one thing it was that crushing all opposed to her under heel accomplished was creating new enemies to fight. She'd watched that come back to bite so many of her predecessors. No, the real trick was to show enough 'compassion' that people believed they were being well treated. It was never easier to rule people than when they believed they were giving you the power rather than having you take it.

Her eyes snapped open as she heard something in the throne room, a metallic rasp, and started to lift her head. She looked around the gloom.

"What is that? Who's there?" She asked. She reached for the bedside table for her mallet, but found it missing. Just then, there was a bright, purple light. She saw Cosmo standing a little way from her, his cane-sword in his hand. He powered up the blade catching her attention. Before she could do anything, he surged forward, ramming the sword straight through her heart. In her weakened state, she didn't have the power to stop him. She let out a pained gasp as he shoved it in up to the hilt.

"You!" She gasped, feeling her lifeblood leaving her. "I never suspected you would have the courage…"

"Lord Drakkon sends his regards." Cosmo told her, pulling out the sword. "No one is bigger than the show. No one!"

Odious let out a huge laugh, before she exploded. Cosmo sheathed his cane-sword once more and strode to the door, opening it. Badonna was waiting outside.

"Is it done?" She asked. He just smiled.

"Just as Lord Drakkon wanted." He answered. "Congratulations on the promotion. The ship is yours."


	38. A Promise

The following day, it was a slow start for the team. They were all thankful it was the weekend, and they didn't have to get to school...at least not to lessons. They all still had a major meeting that they had arranged.

Hayley came into the kitchen of Maxine's apartment, looking to prepare herself some breakfast. It was her dad's week to have her. She got there, finding Maxine making herself a sandwich. At least, she was trying to.

"Would you like a hand?" Hayley asked.

"It's alright, I'll manage." Maxine replied, only moments before the knife she was using to butter the bread slipped from her hand and dropped to the floor. She muttered something in exasperation as she reached down to try and retrieve the knife. Hayley got to it first, picking it up.

"It's alright, I don't mind." Hayley assured her. She could see how frustrated Maxine was, struggling with such a simple task. One of the things that convinced Hayley that her relationship with her father was genuine and not just some student-teacher crush or a way for her to secure a favourable review in her internship while she got her PhD was how fiercely she fought to defend him from Psycho Green. While she was now out of the hospital, during that battle she had been stabbed in the shoulder, causing severe nerve damage. Between that and some muscle wastage while her arm was immobilised while she healed, she was now struggling to get full motion back into her fingers and hand. "How are the exercises going?"

"Not as well as I'd like." Maxine answered honestly as Hayley put the knife into the sink and got another, taking over making the sandwich. "A couple of months ago I was making cutting-edge technology with your dad, now...now I struggle to make a damn sandwich."

"Maxie, these things take time. You know what the doctors said, you'll get there." Hayley assured her.

"It's easy to say." Maxie sighed.

"Hey, you've never quit anything in your life." Hayley reminded her. "I'm sure you'll kick this thing's ass just as much as you have everything else."

"I know, I know, but it's just...it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when I'm way behind on where I want to be in my dissertation because I've gone from being able to type 80 words a minute to about 20 on a good day." She complained. "I guess I should be grateful. Compared to a lot of other people I've gotten off pretty lightly."

"It's good to look at it that way." Hayley assured her. "I mean, no one's going to take away your right to be pissed off this happened. But sometimes you can channel being pissed off into working to be even better than before."

"And what Self-Help book did you get that from?" She asked her. Hayley handed her the plate with her sandwich on it.

"Actually I got it from Troy Burrows' induction speech when he was inducted into the International Karate Hall of Fame." She told her. "I caught it on YouTube."

"Troy Burrows?" She asked.

"Corsair Red." Hayley reminded her. "He had his leg amputated below the knee during his time as a Ranger. It didn't stop him coming back and kicking the Armada's ass."

"You think I should chop my arm off?" Maxine laughed. "Don't you think that's a little excessive?"

"I didn't say that exactly!" Hayley chuckled as she headed through to the main room with her. She almost bumped into Maxie as she stopped still in the doorway though. The plate slipped from her hand and smashed on the floor. "Maxie, I'm sorry..."

She stopped talking though when she saw what Maxie had. The news was playing on the television. She now understood what had spooked Maxine.

"And in breaking news, Channel four has heard exclusive reports that Trevor Marx has been released from Promethea's custody!" The reporter announced. "In a prepared statement, Grace Sterling said 'Mr Marx has been progressing in his treatment, and our diagnostics show that he shows no after effects of the power of the Psycho Green Ranger. After speaking with numerous experts and personally interviewing Mr Marx, it is my expert opinion that he is no longer a threat to society, and on the understanding of receiving further treatment for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I am confident to take full responsibility in releasing Mr Marx back to his own custody'."

Hayley guided Maxie towards the couch, while pulling out her phone.

"Cal, about that...thing we had arranged today?" She asked. "I'm going to have to take a rain check. I'm sure the rest of you can handle this without me right?"

As Maxie sat down on the couch, looking more than a little shell-shocked, Hayley just looked to the mess.

"I'll clean that up." She told her.

Over at the Ranger Base, the Rangers were gathering for their meeting with Tommy. He'd agreed to meet up with them and explain the Drakkon situation when they were ready to hear him out.

Koda was still with them, being curious about the whole situation too. Like the Summer Cove team, he'd never met Tommy personally, so he was a little taken aback to see someone that looked just like Lord Drakkon. The mood was subdued, but it was a little more light-hearted than the previous night. Given the events, Koda had figured they could do with some good news and had decided to tell them his own.

"Really? You're having a kid?" Preston asked him. "Dude, that's great news! I can't wait to become an uncle!"

"Yes, Alessandra and I very excited." Koda told him. "I also very nervous."

"Dude, you are all over this." Calvin assured him. "The way you helped with Draven, that kid is going to be in good hands."

"So, have you thought about names?" Sarah asked him.

"We not decide completely." Koda told them. "But if we have boy, I'd like to call him Taku, after my little brother."

"That would be a lovely gesture." Sarah gushed as she rubbed his shoulders. "Not to mention, if memory serves your little brother grew up to be a total badass if those cave paintings are anything to go by."

"Guys." Mick said as he arrived, drawing their attention and bringing them back to the matter in hand. As they all took seats around the lab, Mick came in, followed closely by Tommy and Wes. The Red Time Force Ranger could see that his presence caused a bit of a stir and figured he should explain.

"Gemma's taken the others back home." Wes informed them. "I figured since we worked together before all of...well...this, it might go a little smoother if there's a kind of intermediary."

"You mean back-up for him?" Calvin asked, slightly accusingly. Tommy just sighed.

"Well, I wouldn't have phrased it quite like that but, in a way...yes." He replied. "I appreciate your concerns, but I think you all have to appreciate I've come here without a morpher and there are...six of you?"

"Hayley called." Calvin explained. "Something came up at home."

"What do you think we're going to do?" Brody asked, toying with Tommy's Master Morpher in his hands. They didn't really know how to approach this situation. They still weren't really sure what 'this situation' even was, but without really knowing what was going on, they had decided to default to having Brody take the lead. "Attack someone who's unarmed and alone?"

"If I did, do you think I'd have turned over my morpher and come here?" Tommy asked in response. "I'm just pointing out that I'm taking a lot on faith here, and I'd appreciate if you'd show me the same courtesy. Wes is here purely in the capacity as a character witness."

He and Wes both took seats as they looked to the other Rangers.

"To begin with, I want to assure you, right here and right now, I had nothing to do with those attacks on you." Tommy told them, before looking to Koda. "Or the death of your friend's father. For what it's worth, I'm deeply sorry about that."

"So, what's the story?" Levi asked. "If that wasn't you, why does he look exactly like you?"

"Yeah, I mean what is he, your evil twin or your clone?" Sarah replied sarcastically.

"Well, I don't have an evil twin, but I did have a clone, we sent him back to Colonial Boston." Tommy replied honestly. Sarah just sighed.

"You know, by now you'd think I'd know better than to ask." She responded. "In this game, that's just about crazy enough to be true."

"It is. I met him once, good guy!" Wes added. "Drakkon though is something completely different. Something much worse."

"What could be worse than a clone?" Calvin asked.

"Drakkon is me." Tommy stated. "Well, an alternative version of me. You see, there are multiple dimensions, each a little different from the others..."

"Multi-verse!" The Ninja Steel Rangers all chorused. Wes and Tommy just looked to each other.

"Wow, that normally takes a lot longer to explain." Wes commented.

"My head hurt." Koda said, scratching his head a little. Sarah leaned in closely.

"Imagine there are other worlds like ours, other versions of us, but they're a little different." She explained. "Like...maybe you didn't get frozen or maybe I became the Red Ranger. That kind of thing."

"So Drakkon is you, from another dimension, so he's you, but just a little different." Emma summarised. "So, in what way is he different from you?"

"Up until we were 17, absolutely nothing." Tommy explained. "But, when I was 17 my family moved to Angel Grove, and while I was there Rita Repulsa put me under a spell and turned me into her evil Green Ranger. She turned me against the Rangers. I almost destroyed them, but in the end, they never gave up on me, and instead of destroying me, they broke Rita's spell on me and released me from her grasp. That was where our paths diverted. Jason and the other Rangers offered me the chance to join them. I accepted their offer and joined the side of good. Drakkon didn't. He felt so guilty about all the harm he'd caused that he fled."

"Wait, if he felt so guilty then why did he come back?" Calvin asked him.

"Rita found him, and realising she had failed to keep control of him with a spell, she tried to convince him to follow her, told him that the Rangers' power attracts the destruction. She convinced him that the only way to change that was to bring order to the world, everyone under one rule."

"A dictatorship." Sandy stated. Tommy just nodded in response.

"Over the following years, that Tommy took on the name Drakkon, a name that Rita gave him. Together they laid waste to the world, drove the Rangers back. In a desperate attempt to turn the tide, Zordon tried to create a new, more powerful set of powers to give to Jason. Drakkon interrupted them though and took them for himself. Combining them with his own powers, he became far too powerful for them to stop. After that, no one could stop him, not even Rita. He killed her and took over control of his entire world."

"He wasn't done there though." Wes continued. "You see, he realised there was yet more power to be had. Over time, he started exploring other dimensions, taking the powers of other Rangers until he had enough to enter the Morphing Grid itself. His goal was to re-shape the grid itself and re-write all of existence in his own image."

"All of existence?" Brody asked. Tommy just shrugged.

"What can I say? In any dimension, the one consistent is I'm ambitious." He joked, but he noticed no one was laughing. "Anyway, several years ago, there was an event that those of us who remember it call The Sundering. In order to cross dimensions, he tore the fabric of space and time apart. It allowed him to access Rangers in different times, different dimensions, all across reality. He gathered Ranger Powers, fusing them with his own. He almost succeeded, but in the final moments, we managed to defeat him. Taking pity on him, I tried to pull him from the Grid. He refused and was consumed by it. Or so I thought."

"When The Grid was repaired, it was decided it would be for the best that a few of us were entrusted to re-set existence as it was, effectively writing all that happened out of existence. That's why only a few of us still remember." Wes explained to them. "It was decided it would be for the best if it remained that way."

"But now, by the sounds of it, he's back." Tommy stated. "How, I honestly don't know. When he refused my hand, I thought he was destroyed by The Grid. He should have been destroyed. I can't understand how he could have survived."

"Well, he did." Preston told him. "And last time he was here, he kind of handed us our asses."

"I've checked with Alex. He's confirmed that recent activity has weakened the Dimensional Barriers." Wes told them. "Whether Draven was working on behalf of Drakkon or it's just a horrible coincidence we don't know. All we know is if Drakkon did survive and was trapped, this is what he needed to be able to break free."

"Great." Levi muttered. "Even when he's dead Draven's causing a pain in our asses."

"I understand why you're all reluctant to trust me. Believe me, it's something that haunts me." Tommy told them. "But I've been doing this for a long time, and I've always tried to prepare the world for any threats that come. I've seen you all in action, you're a powerful team, and if you'll let me help, I will when I can. If you're not too proud."

The Ninja Steel Rangers gathered together to discuss what they'd heard.

"Look, we've seen what Drakkon can do. I say we could use all the help we can get if he comes back." Sarah stated.

"Yeah, but...are we sure this guy is the best person to call for help?" Calvin asked, taking the Master Morpher from Brody. "I mean, wanting to fuse together Ranger Powers into one more powerful Ranger? Am I the only one that sounds scarily familiar to?"

"I hate to admit it but...he has a point." Preston answered.

"I say we give him a shot." Levi replied. "We've seen him in action. I would really like to have him with us if we face Drakkon again."

They all looked to Sandy. The Green Ranger just held her hands up.

"I...I really don't want to vote." She stammered.

"Come on Sandy, you're a Ranger now." Brody told her. "You have as much right to a say as anyone else here."

"I don't know, I just...it doesn't feel like my place to make that kind of decision." She told him. "Everyone here's been doing this longer than I have. Hell, those two look like they've been doing it longer than I've been alive."

"HEY!" Tommy and Wes called out together in protest.

"I mean...it's true but...HEY!" Wes complained.

"Alright, it looks like you get the deciding vote then." Calvin replied, handing Brody the Master Morpher. "We'll back you whatever you decide."

"You know it." Sarah agreed. Brody thought about it for a moment, before throwing the Master Morpher to Tommy.

"If Drakkon is coming, we'll need all the help we can get." Brody responded. "We'd be honoured to fight by your side again."

"Thank you." Tommy replied gratefully. "I need to get back to my family. I'm only a call away."

"Just, use the land-line." Wes recommended. "He has a bad track record with communicators."

"Hey!" Tommy laughed as they made to leave. Wes just laughed in response as they both took their leave.

"I should be going too." Koda told them. "Wes my ride home! Still no have licence...driving hard!"

"Just make sure you call when that baby comes!" Sarah called after him. "And I want pictures!"

Now that they were on their own once more, the Ninja Steel Rangers assembled.

"I don't know about you guys, but the thought Drakkon might be behind all of this has me seriously scared." Preston commented.

"You're scared?" Sandy asked. "I've barely scraped by as it is."

"Are you kidding? You were great out there today!" Preston complimented her, holding her closely. "I mean, whatever you did to Draven, that really turned the tables!"

"Well, whatever happens next, you know one thing, Odious has to be pissed." Calvin commented. "And I don't think it'll be too long before she's got something in the works, if she hasn't already."

"Did you have to say that?" Sarah groaned. "Just for once, I'd like it if we could get a HAPPY ending. Just once as a novelty."

"Well, the day's not over yet." Levi said, looking to Brody. "And we have made a promise that I really want to keep."

Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo had put out an announcement to the whole ship for the entire production staff to meet up. It wasn't common for the entire staff to be called together, but considering the fact the majority of them were basically slaves, it wasn't as if any of them were in a position to refuse.

They had all been gathered in the main arena, facing the stage. Cosmo strode out onto the stage.

"Ladies, gentlemen, esteemed colleagues, we have an important announcement to make!" Cosmo stated. "Now, please put your hands together for BADONNA!"

They gave an applause that reflected the level of enthusiasm that was barely above a condemned prisoner. Badonna strode out onto the stage next.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you have worked tirelessly on our show, diligently giving your all to make Galaxy Warriors the greatest show in the universe!" She began. "But, there is always room for improvement."

They all murmured and groaned hearing this. Badonna just smiled. She knew they were expecting more work.

"We have begun with a little...management reshuffling." She stated. "It is with great regret and deepest sympathies I must announce that Madame Odious is no longer with the Galaxy Warriors family."

There were loud gasps and a hush fell over them. Odious was gone? She had been, if anything, even crueller than Galvanax.

"Yes, it is sad to see her go, but every now and then...cuts have to be made." Cosmo said with a wicked smile. "We wish her well in her future endeavours!"

This definitely caused a reaction. "Future Endeavours" was a coded phrase made in press statements from Galaxy Warriors to announce a departure from their roster. On the Warrior Dome though, such departures tended to involve an obituary more often than a pink slip.

"It is with that in mind, it is with great pleasure I announce that I, Badonna, will now be the General Manager of Galaxy Warriors!" She told them. "And in my first act, I want to announce that you, the true stars of Galaxy Warriors, will see your efforts greatly rewarded! From this day forth, you will see Kudabots revamping every residential block in the entire ship! Your rations will be brought into line with that of the talent! From now on, you will be rewarded!"

A massive cheer went up from the crowd as she made these announcements, before they started chanting her name. Cosmo came closer to her.

"You really are shaking things up around here aren't you?" He asked her.

"Who need a whip when people want to work for you?" She asked him. "Now, I just have to make a call. I already have a new talent I want to sign...and he is a real dreamboat!"

With that, she drifted off the stage to a massive chorus of cheers and chants. Yes, this would be a new era in Galaxy Warriors, and she was keen to start it off with a bang!

Back on Earth, Dane was in the yard of the Romero Farm, doing some chores. It had been a while since he returned from his trip, but he had yet to speak to his sons in any meaningful way. He understood that they were busy, but he also knew they were still angry.

He couldn't blame them. In truth he couldn't blame them if neither of them wanted to speak to him ever again. He had learned long ago that when his life was in turmoil that he needed to get back to the basics of survival, to let everything else go. It was one of the main reasons he left the academy after the death of his beloved wife. There, he had too much to distract him. Out here, there was only work.

He brought down his splitting axe onto a massive log, cleaving it most of the way. The axe lodged in it, so he lifted the log with the axe, bringing both down to cleave it, before setting up another log. He paused as he heard a couple of trucks coming up the driveway. He was happy to see that they belonged to his sons.

"Brody, Levi!" He said, smiling as they got out of the vehicles. "I...I wasn't expecting you."

"We wanted to wait a little while, to get some of our thoughts in order." Brody told him as he stood, fidgeting a little awkwardly. Dane could tell he didn't really know what to do. Dane for his part was happy to accept anything. His sons even being here was a huge step. If they spoke to him, yelled at him, hell he'd even willingly take them hitting him. Just seeing them was more than he felt like he could ask for.

"I understand. I hear you've been busy." Dane said, considering his words. "You...good?"

He really wished he could take that back. The words sounded so lame, so miniscule in the weight of what he had to make up to them.

"Yeah, I'm good." Brody replied. "A little sore, stiff."

"Tired." Levi added. Dane nodded in understanding.

"Then perhaps...you'd like to come in?" He asked. "I could make something...I think I have some...something."

"That sounds good dad." Levi replied quietly. "But first, there's...someone here we'd like you to meet.

He went to his truck, opening the passenger door. As Emma stepped out, and he was able to see her, his heart stopped still. His eyes grew wide and his mind just seemed to stop working. He could only think of one thought.

"My God." He gasped, the axe slipping from his hand and dropping to the ground. She was younger, and she was wearing glasses, but she looked just like her. There was no way he could have missed it.

"Hi." Was the only thing Emma could muster to force out of her mouth. She had imagined the scene so many times, and yet now it was here, her brain couldn't find anything to say. She just stared at him uneasily.

"Hi." Was all Dane could say in response.

FIN


End file.
